may be readily seen; and I have more than once seen
rows of coloured bricks, red or blue, which the animal moulded and
then deposited on the tube! We will take the bottle home, and if you
have patience I doubt not I shall be able to show you a good deal of
what I have been describing; but you must have patience, for, as an
excellent naturalist has said, "The Melicerta is an awkward object to
undertake to show to our friends, for, as they knock at the door, she
is apt to turn sulky, and when once in this mood it is impossible to
say when her fair form will reappear. At times the head is wagged
about in all directions with considerable vehemence, playing singular
antics, and distorting her lobes so as to exhibit a Punch and Judy
profile."[B]

Hark! what is that bird singing so sweetly and with such animation in
the hedge? Do you hear? It is the dear little sedge-warbler; often,
indeed, heard, but not so often seen, for it is fond of hiding itself
in bushes or sedges. The sedge-warbler, like the migratory warblers
generally, comes to us in April and leaves us in September. How often
have I listened with delight to its music when returning home quite
late at night in summer months! If the bird stops its music for a few
moments, you have only to throw a stone among the bushes and the
singing commences again. I am not clever in describing musical sounds,
and I cannot describe that of the sedge-warbler, nor can I always
distinguish it from the song of its near relative the reed-warbler.
Both imitate the songs of other birds, and their incessant warblings
and babblings at night cause them to be often mistaken for
nightingales. I have generally found the nest of the sedge-warbler on
the ground, on a tuft of coarse grass or sedge; the nest of the
reed-warbler is supported on four or five tall reeds, and is made of
the seed-branches of the reeds and long grass wound round and round;
it is made deep, so that the little eggs are not tossed out when the
reeds are shaken by the high winds.

[Illustration: NEST OF REED WARBLER.]

Hark! there is the cuckoo; how clearly he utters "cuckoo! cuckoo!" He
is not far away. Some people can imitate the well-known note so well
as to deceive the bird and bring it near the place where they are
hiding. Your Uncle Philip only the other day made a cuckoo respond to
him; had the day been calm instead of windy, he would, no doubt, have
induced the bird to come close to us. There he goes with his long