Identifier: mylifeamongwildb00vern (find matches)
Title: My life among the wild birds in Spain
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Verner, William Willoughby Cole, 1852-
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: London, J. Bale, Sons & Danielsson, Ltd.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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nceasing efforts to find their prey. That they are extremelyquick-sighted is plain from their mode of life and methods ofhunting. All the same, I have frequently outwitted them whenI have been lying prone ; then, while I remained perfectly motion-less, they have sometimes been so engrossed in their minute inspec-tion of what lies below as to pass within close shot. Their boldnessis at times remarkable. In January 1907 I was lying up waitingfor wild-fowl, concealed amid some matted scrub and herbage.I had killed a Grey-lag Goose and some duck and had set themup on forked sticks to act as decoys, close to the foreshore andwithin 30 yards of my position. Presently an adult male MarshHarrier came beating up-wind along the waters edge and uponspying the decoys made a dive at them, but apparently suspectingthat something was wrong, alighted within a few feet ol a Pintaildrake. I was curious to see what he would do as I imagined hewould hardly be able to lift so heavy a bird. Next moment the
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2 I ^ A Nest of Young Savages 105 Harrier ran at the defunct bird and literally jumping on its back,seized it and, taking wing, was about to make off, when, in order notto lose my duck, I shot him. The comparative quickness of vision ol the various orders oibirds is interesting to study. My own conclusions are that nonesee quicker than the smaller species of Gulls, and after them thelarger Gulls. The most wary of birds, such as the Great andLittle Bustards, Curlew and various raptorial lards, have now andagain all come past me within easy shot, when lying concealed.Not so the small Gulls, which ceaselessly drift up and down thewaters of the lagunas in winter and which somehow always detectones presence before coming within shot ami swerve oil. In some of the large tracts of bulrush Marsh Harriers nest incolonies and even in small marshes it is no uncommon thing tofind two or three nests within 20 to 40 yards of one another.As far as I can judge, they seem to prefer to occupy some othe

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