"I will go up and see," said Dick, "if you will give me a back." They soon lifted him up, and as they did so, a French or red-legged partridge flew off.
"Here is her nest with ten eggs in it," cried Dick, "what an extraordinary spot for a nest." And so it was, but not altogether singular, for the partridge has been known to build in a hollow tree, and in other unlikely situations.
Leaving the wood, they proceeded up a small stream which empties itself into the Waveney. As they advanced, a sandpiper took short flights in front of them. It was presently joined by another, and the two seemed so uneasy, that the boys concluded that their nest could not be far off. They therefore set to work to examine every likely spot with great care. Dick was the one who found it, in fact he very nearly trod upon it. Four cream-coloured eggs with brown spots, very much pointed and very large for the size of the bird, lay in a hollow in a gravelly bank, upon a few pieces of dry grass and leaves, the birds' apology for a nest. The sandpipers flew over head, uttering their cry of "weet, weet, weet," with great anxiety, and they looked so pretty, that the boys felt sorry for them, and only took two of their eggs.
The summer snipe, as this bird is also called, is well known to everyone who wanders by the side of streams or lakes. Its white stomach contrasts so prettily with its dusky back, and it walks so merrily about the water-edge, trotting over the lily leaves, and taking short flights before the angler, that it is one of my favourite birds, the kingfisher and the water-ouzel being the other two.
Jimmy had gone off up a small ravine thickly covered with underwood, in search of a fern or two which he expected to find there. He had not been gone long before they heard him give a loud shout, and turning towards the spot, they saw a woodcock float out of a covert with that owl-like flight which it sometimes affects.
"Here is its nest," shouted Jimmy.
This news was sufficient to make the boys rush at once to the place where Jimmy stood.
On the ground under a holly-bush was the nest, with four eggs in it, of a dirty yellowish white, spotted with pale brown.
