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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many eggs will a female glow-worm lay before dying?
(a) 90 to 140.
(b) 50 to 150.
(c) 75 to 125.
(d) 80 to 100.

2. In "The Observatory," how long did the author sit with a swan?
(a) 10 minutes.
(b) 15 minutes.
(c) 20 minutes.
(d) 5 minutes.

3. In "Wicken," what did the author and her guests see when they walked Wicken Fen floating past them?
(a) Hawk.
(b) Barn owl.
(c) Falcon.
(d) Eagle.

4. In "Wicken," how many acres of Wicken Fen had been returned to its former wetland state?
(a) About 13,000.
(b) 14,000.
(c) 22,000.
(d) Around 11,000.

5. When did the royal ownership of swans date back to?
(a) 15th century.
(b) Around the 11th century.
(c) At least the 12th century.
(d) 14th century.

6. What did the wavelength of transmitted radar waves shorten to when they started getting radar reflections of birds?
(a) 5 centimeters.
(b) 8 centimeters.
(c) 12 centimeters.
(d) 10 centimeters.

7. When did Stanley Spencer leave the painting Swan Upping at Cookham unfinished in his bedroom?
(a) 1917.
(b) 1915.
(c) 1916.
(d) 1914.

8. Where did the author remember in "Nestboxes" staying where there was a pair of nesting laughing doves?
(a) Madagascar.
(b) India.
(c) Egypt.
(d) South Africa.

9. When did Maxwell Knight, an intelligence officer, place agents in various organizations?
(a) 1920s to 1950s.
(b) 1950s to 1970s.
(c) 1940s to 1980s.
(d) 1930s to end of World War II.

10. In "Nestboxes," what 19th-century-naturalist installed sand martin nest pipes and other avian households at his Yorkshire estate?
(a) John Burroughs.
(b) William Beebe.
(c) Charles Waterton.
(d) Gerald Durrell.

11. How big does the author say that swans can be in "The Observatory"?
(a) Size of a small bush.
(b) Size of a large dog.
(c) Size of a breadbox.
(d) Size of a cat.

12. What type of birds nested on Dublin's Poolbeg Power Station?
(a) Gulls.
(b) Peregrine falcons.
(c) Pigeons.
(d) Ospreys.

13. How long was the journey to catch all the swans on the upper reaches of the River Thames?
(a) 2 days.
(b) 5 days.
(c) 7 days.
(d) 3 days.

14. At the end of "Deer in the Headlights," what book did the author buy?
(a) Understanding Deer.
(b) An Anthology of Deer.
(c) The Hidden Life of Deer.
(d) The Radiant Lives of Deer.

15. In "Deer in the Headlights," what was the name of Macdonald's friend who hit a deer?
(a) Megan.
(b) Isabella.
(c) Margaret.
(d) Rachelle.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Deer in the Headlights," when were the ancestors of the herd the author observed brought to the estate?

2. Where did the author like to see swans in the winter?

3. In "Storm," when was the author driving?

4. In "Murmurations," what time did a flock of plovers fly low?

5. In "Murmurations," where did the author remember watching starlings come to roost?

(see the answer keys)

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