NONSUCH 



It was an amazing spectacle to see the ceiling of 

 the water, apparently quite solid in its smoothness, 

 suddenly troubled by an upward rain of thousands 

 of living atoms, among which sinister, silvery 

 sickles and boomerangs twisted and fell. In the 

 distance the leaping fry looked like a myriad gleam- 

 ing crescent moons which rose only to set in the 

 same movement. Now and then, a great snout or 

 fin would be poked slowly up into view suggesting 

 unbelievable, invisible length behind. 



I watched, fascinated, the breathlessness and 

 calm shattered by the agonized lif e-and-death rush ; 

 the peace of mirrored water broken by the instant 

 return of thousands of living dynamos, with every 

 power of brain and body concentrated upon sheer 

 speed. Time and time again this recurred, until 

 there seemed a terrible rhythm to it all. 



Then the silence, which the bluebirds had only 

 enhanced, was shattered. From high overhead, a 

 hard, metallic rattle cracked like the beginning of 

 thunder, and the kingfisher set his wings to broad- 

 arrow-barb shape and dropped straight into a curv- 

 ing wave of Silversides, turned, rose, and flew with 

 deep notched loops to a rocky perch. With my glass 

 I could see at least three of the small fish crosswise 

 in his stout beak. 



When I looked back, the performance was over: 

 The mirror was blurred with the breath of a cats- 

 paw of wind, the mackerel had gone where mack- 

 erel go after feeding and the ocean had taken again 

 to itself hundreds of thousands of little fish — each 



250 



