The New Forest and the Isle of WightWith eight plates and many other illustrations . o lofty as to lift theirsummits above the natural angle of sight, even as the head isusually carried in the forest ; if it were not for the glimpses of thegreat birds silently launching themselves from the tree-tops beforetheir disturber has approached the nest, the existence of the colony wouldnot be suspected. It was the flight of a single heron slipping noiselesslyfrom the nest, and soaring back in a wide circle to watch over the brood,that first indicated to the present writer that he was in the
The New Forest and the Isle of WightWith eight plates and many other illustrations . o lofty as to lift theirsummits above the natural angle of sight, even as the head isusually carried in the forest ; if it were not for the glimpses of thegreat birds silently launching themselves from the tree-tops beforetheir disturber has approached the nest, the existence of the colony wouldnot be suspected. It was the flight of a single heron slipping noiselesslyfrom the nest, and soaring back in a wide circle to watch over the brood,that first indicated to the present writer that he was in the then the height of the trees, their distance apart, and the thicknessof the foliage at the top made the discovery of the nest no easy task,had not the clattering noise made by the young indicated their where-abouts. The presence of birds of prey, though usually screened fromsight by the thickness of the forest, was well illustrated by an incidentwhich took place after the momentary flight of the old herons. Asparrow-hawk dashed up through the wood, and poising itself above the. ft^ ::^ 32 THE NEW FOREST trees, flew from nest to nest, looking down into them from a height of afew feet, and apparently expecting to find a brood small enough for oneto be carried off before the old birds returned. The hawks visit onlylasted for a minute, for at that moment five old herons came sweepingover the wood, and remained soaring in hurried and anxious flight farabove the tops of the loftiest trees. When we retired to some distanceand stood still by a timber stack, bird after bird pitched on the trees, andafter one or two subdued croaks of greeting, flapped down into the eyries appear absolutely inaccessible, built, as they are, at heights offrom seventy to ninety feet from the ground on trees which rise two-thirds of that height without a single branch. Yet they are climbed,otherwise the inquiry as to whether you could do with some youngherons—or young cranes, for both names are
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Keywords: ., bookauthorcornishc, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1903
