File:Birds and their nests and eggs - found in and near great towns (1907) (14752315501).jpg

Identifier: birdstheirnestse00vosg (find matches)
Title: Birds and their nests and eggs : found in and near great towns
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Vos, George Herklots
Subjects: Birds Birds Birds
Publisher: London : G. Routledge New York : E.P. Dutton.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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and thrush. So ended our pleasant, and I think success-ful, visit to Nightingale Valley. CHAPTER IV WITH THE ISLAND BIRDS ONCE MORE IMIDDLE OF MAY To-dayis a bright May day, notwithstandingthat some threatening clouds look ominousaway there in the south. No such con-siderations, however, daunt the ardentnaturalist. It does not take us long to slipdown to the waterside again, bent on ex-ploring more islands and on finding whatother birds have therein made their nests.The boat is at her wonted moorings, so,armed as before with camera and slides, theislands soon are reached. Beautiful theyare, reposing in a peaceful calm, the coolclear water rippling into wavelets where thewooded armlets do not stretch out far. In the shallows, rooted to the bottomwhere the banks shelve gently down, are 44 WITH THE ISLAND BIRDS ONCE MORE : fine clumps of water chickweed, emeraldgreen and dainty to the eye, shaded here andthere by the free growing floating pondweed,with its pointed leaves. The plants will
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XVII : The cool clear water rippling into WAVELETS where THE WOODED ARMLETS DO NOTSTRETCH OUT FAR. soon be gay with numberless long-lasting redspikes of bloom. And flourishing more shyly,the large round leaves of the brandy bottlefloat ; they much resemble those the water- MIDDLE GF MAY 45 lily bears, but the protruding golden cups inJuly can admit of no mistake. These flowers—when first out and freshly picked—have adistinct odour of fine Cognac. More rarelystill, a few plants of the frogbit thrive, withits small oval leaves (see Kingfisher, PlateXXXIII), that, starting in the early springas pear-shaped buds, which dropped off fromthe parent plant, lie dormant in the mud,and so quite safe from frost, till warmerdays come round, and then expanding intoleafy growth, are buoyed up by generatingoxygen, and rise to float their one yearslife and reproduce their buds in turn. (Thisinteresting mode of reproduction can well bewatched in a good sized aquarium.) Thebrandy bottles painted lea

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