SIDE UGHTS ON BIRDS 



come simultaneously to all the fish in this pool of 

 glass. Forms before unnoted spring into being 

 from the clustering weeds, and cruise hither and 

 thither as though bent on some urgent quest. 

 Our own goodly trout throws off his lethargy, 

 and with one vigorous sweep of his tail rises high 

 in the current, and is lost in the crowd of hurrying 

 forms. And the uprising, whatever may be its 

 cause, is not confined to the denizens of our little 

 pool. It is as if the trout in the whole water 

 possessed one soul in common, and that the im- 

 pulse that moved the one swept through the entire 

 community as a single vibration. Looking 

 through the vista of the trees to the erst-placid 

 lake beyond we see that the whole surface is 

 alive with dimpling rings. 



In the channels, wherever broken masses of 

 stone appear through the vegetation, white wag- 

 tails may be noted, and sandpipers and red- 

 shanks constantly flit from rock to rock. The 

 redshanks nest about the lakes in great numbers, 

 and wherever one lands it is clear from the distress- 

 ful notes of the parent birds that they have young 

 hidden in the herbage in the near neighbourhood. 

 Over-anxiety is the bane of the redshank race. 

 The passer-by would constantly take his way un- 

 heeding, through the tussocks, were it not that the 

 two slim brown forms, their white plumes and 

 long red legs conspicuous as they fly, almost bar 

 his passage, alighting on every vantage point of 

 rock or rail, even at times on the stimted trees 

 themselves, in order to protest in the most 

 vociferous terms against his intrusion. 



From the great snow-capped mountains which 

 partly surround the Skei lakes a mighty waterfall 

 descends, the broad white line on the heights 

 breaking into a hundred foaming channels as the 

 rocks crop up to divert the water's course. The 



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