. Wild nature's ways . t of mytemporary abode. The female appeared for a long while to bedoubtful about the wisdom of venturing nearthe great black eye of my camera, staring stolidlyfrom a newly-placed heap of reeds, but as herdistrust of it decreased, she grew bolder, andgradually drew nearer and nearer, flying fromone elevated stem to another, until at last, tomy great delight, she pitched on the dead dockstem shown in the picture on the next making a careful examination of everythingby a number of nervously rapid side to sideglances, she became convinced that the objectof her err
. Wild nature's ways . t of mytemporary abode. The female appeared for a long while to bedoubtful about the wisdom of venturing nearthe great black eye of my camera, staring stolidlyfrom a newly-placed heap of reeds, but as herdistrust of it decreased, she grew bolder, andgradually drew nearer and nearer, flying fromone elevated stem to another, until at last, tomy great delight, she pitched on the dead dockstem shown in the picture on the next making a careful examination of everythingby a number of nervously rapid side to sideglances, she became convinced that the objectof her errand was worth the risk in carrying itout, and making a series of half-hopping, half-gliding downward movements, she quickly reachedthe cover of the luxuriant herbage, where sheevidently felt safer. Running forward along akind of tunnel made by many journeyings, shefed her offspring, and promptly went away insearch of more food. Once the ice was broken,she came with increasing frequency and confi- 192 WILD NATURES REED-BUNTING. dence. The malebird, however,proved to be anarrant his con-sorts growingboldness nor hissense of parentalduty would leadhim into what heevidently consid-ered the jeopard-ising of his per-sonal safety, andhe contented him-self by sitting on some coign of vantage at a re-spectful distance and plaintively reiterating threenotes, which sounded wonderfully like Dont hitmc ! Dont hit mc!—a peculiar emphasis beinglaid on the note represented by the second female reed bunting was the most ac-complished little gymnast I ever saw. She couldplace her body parallel to the upright dockstem whilst grasping it with her feet, so widelyparted that no artist who had dared to commither grotesque attitude to canvas could havehoped to escape the charge of exaggeration. BIRDS OF BROADLAND AND STREAMSIDE. 193 When she came with food, she frequentlybore the appearance of having dipped her headinto the water for it, and nearly always gave herchic
Size: 1274px × 1961px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, books, booksubjectnaturalhistory
