two eggs lay with their long diameters parallel to one
another, and there was just room for a third egg to he
placed between them. The nest, about two feet across, was
nearly flat, made chiefly of light-coloured grass*: or hay
loosely matted together, scarcely more than two inches in
depth, and raised only two or three inches from the general
level of the swamp. There were higher sites iclose b y ; and
many of them would have seemed more eligible.
“ It was just at the lowest edge of the strip, but so much
exposed, that I thought I should be able Hicr see evemthe
eggs themselves from a spot at a considerable distance, to
which I proposed to go.' "There was a common s,tory
amongst the people of the country? that a Crane, if its he.st
were disturbed, would carry off its" eggs under its wing ifct)
another place; so I purposely handled one of the ,-eggS, and
hung up a bit of birch bark'On a bireh-tree beyond the nest,
as a mark by which to direct my telescope.' Then T ‘went
with Ludwig to aa .clump of spruce growing'on soumdry
sandy land which rose out of the midst of the marsh. TEfere
I made a good ambuscade of : spruce boughs,- crept into At,
got Ludwig to cover me so -that/>even the Crane’ srepf#Md
not distinguish me, and /sent.; him to make a fire tossfeep by
on -the , far side of the wood, with strict-urder^on no-account
to come near my hiding-place. I -kept my glass in 1fee
direction of the - nest ;. but it was long before .1 saw -anything
stir/ In the meantime • the'marsh was no means qulfeb;
Ruffs were holding" something 'between ^European ball and
anEast-Indiannautch.'. Several times ‘ keet-koot,.keet#Qot,’
to use the words by which the Einns express'the sound, told
.where the Snipes were. | A' jjock /Pintail* dashed* into a-bit* of
water calling loudly for its mate.-* The full melancholy
wailing .of the Black-throated.I>iw§r;.came” from the river;
watch-dogs were barking in the ^distance*;! Lhearffithe^sub-
dued hacking of wood and-the crackling of Ludwig’s fire.
It was already about. 'midnight; Fieldfares, were chasing
each other through the wood: one came peeking about my
feet; and another, settling on-the.branches that covered'my
back, almost -made my ears ache with.' the- loudness of its
cries. I often heard the waft of known wings; but three
times there sounded overhead the sweeping wave of great
wings to which my ears were unaccustomed. I could
scarcely doubt it was the Cranes’; but I dare not turn up
my eye*: I even once or twice heard a slight chuckle that
must have been from them. - . At length, as I had my glass
in the direction of the nest, which was three or four hundred
yards off, I saw a fall grey figure emerging- from amongst
the birch-trees, just beyond where I knew theUest.must be;
and there stood the Crane in all the-beauty .of nature,an. the
full side-light of an-Arctic ssummer night.* She came^ on
with her graceful'walk, her head up, and she- raised#/ a
littleiiigher and turned her beak sideways and-upwards as
she passed 'round the tree on whose trunk I had/hung .the
little roll of bark. .-I had ‘not- anticipated thafe*she WClld
observe SO ordinary an objects She probably .saw that her
eggs were safe, and, then she took a beat of twenty; ,or^thirty
yards in the swamp, pecking and apparently feeding. At
the endufi this beak she stood still for a quarter of an hour,
soinetimes' pecking and sometimes, motionless, hut showing
no symptoms of suspicion of- my /whereabouts, and, indeed*
no manifest sign of fear. At length she turned hack and
passed her -nest' a feiW-paces in the opposite direction, bjit
soon came into-it; she arranged with her beak, the materials
of the'ke,st;jor' the eggs, or both;- she-,dropped.her breast
gently-forwards ;-/fand as*;sbbUj as it -touched,;,shg.j#t -t/b!e rest
of her body'-sink gradually down. And so she sits with her
neck up and. her" body full in my sight, sometimes preening
her -feathers, especially of rthe -neck, sometimes lazily peeking
' about, and for a long time she sits with her^n/eck curyefi
like a, Swan’s, though principally abuts«upper part.. Now,
she turns! her- head backwards, puts- her beak under the
wing, apparently just in the middle of ifce ridge of the back,
and -soi&he:-seems fairly to go to sleep. While fiits^as
generally while -she walks, her.plumes are compassed and
inconspicuous. . ............................................... :•
“ I must not ffo? into kofig particulars -concerning the nest
-Kharto uoma. I fotfndlfhe, two eggs on the