SUMMER ON THE MOORS 109 



branch, the foliage thus concealing his form from the 

 "glegg e'ecl " trout beneath. 



Kingfishers nest here, but are scarce from two causes. 

 The first is the selfishness of the "man with a gun," 

 who persists in reducing - one of Nature's most lovely 

 ornaments to a miserable, ill-stuffed effigy for his own 

 private delectation. But severe winters are a still more 

 potent agency, since frozen streams and snow-covered 

 burns mean death to the halcyon bird. 



July 31. — This afternoon at 4 p.m. a sudden thunder- 

 storm with heavy rain drove us to shelter in a pinewood 

 on the hillside. Dense black clouds darkened the heavens, 

 and the owls, mistaking this for night, awakened and 

 began to call. Ten minutes later, two owls appeared 

 outside, actually commencing to hunt! In less than an 

 hour the sun was shining once more, and the owls must 

 have felt rather silly, especially when they found them- 

 selves mobbed by all the small birds within call. 



The month of July marks in bird-life the conclusion 

 of the summer period, and inaugurates that of autumn. 



The whole trend and object of the feathered world, 

 all its infinite instincts and aspirations — (a study of 

 some few features of which has occupied the preced- 

 ing chapters) — are now reversed. Birds, in common with 

 the rest of creation, find themselves ever confronted by 

 ceaseless labour. No sooner are the hard conditions of 

 one period fulfilled, than the revolving cycle brings them 

 face to face with a fresh set of duties and labours no 

 less onerous. In spring the birds have gathered from 

 afar — some from the very ends of the earth — at a degree 

 of risk which our present knowledge is insufficient to 

 gauge. On arrival, the survivors at once set about the 

 functions of reproduction. Then, no sooner is the new 



