Identifier: picturesofbirdli00lodg (find matches)
Title: Pictures of bird life : on woodland meadow, mountain and marsh
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Lodge, R. B
Subjects: Birds -- Pictorial works
Publisher: London : S. H. Bousfield
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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, and, witli tliehelp of an oar, you can get your knee o\er and struggleup again ; but they are exceedingly dangerous. A quant is also a most useful tool with which topoke about among the reeds and sedge, and in searchingfor Bearded Tits and Heed-warblers nests it is almostindispensable. By parting tlie reeds in front of you as youadvance slowly, and as quietly as possible, you can see thenests of the latter suspended between the reed-stems ; andfor the former you can hear the rustle of the bird as itsilently slips off its nest and creeps through the thickgrowth. Then you know exactly where to look for thenest, and will probably find it a few feet in front of youamong the confused tangle of dead vegetation, where other-wise it would most probably escape observation altogether.For its construction is of the roughest, as far as the outsideappearance. The inside, liowe\er, is beautifully lined withthe flower of the reed—the fane, as the marshmen callit—and sometimes a feather or two.
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214 Pictures of Bird Life All the nests I have seen have been in a sedoe-bush—i.e. a thick, tangled mass of sedge, Avhich ents like a knife.I have never seen one among reeds proper: they aregenerally on the edge of a little pool, and witliin a footof the water. Only one has been found over dry land, andthis was but a few feet from a pathway leading to a l)()at-house, and contained voimo-. The nestlings have the most extraordinary palates Iever saw. A\hen they open their mouths—as all youngbirds do when any one approaches them—they may be seento be most brilliantly coloured and spotted,—far more sothan any other ^\\t\\ which I am acquainted. The parent-birds, after the young are hatched, areparticularly bold and tame, taking very little notice ofanybody watching them. It was, in fact, a matter of somedifficulty to keep them off the nest when I wanted to photo-graph them on tlie surrounding reeds. Though standingbut a yard or two away, I ha^•e had to quite drive themout of it.

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