138 WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



ground, but failed to get it as it went into the 

 tanjyle. 



For about fifty yards there is a sullen narrow run 



of water which empties direct into the mere. Here 



there is not a sound, not even a rustle of the reeds, 



or a nod of a simple reed-tassel ; not even the 



chiding of a Reed Wren, or the babbling chatter 



of a Sedge Warbler. But I do not give up hope 



of finding what I have come to look for ; if a Rail 



is about at all I shall see him here. A water-vole 



runs out from the swamp along the edge of the 



water — at least by the movement I imagine it at 



first to be a vole ; but I am deceived, for it enters 



the water, and then I discover through my glasses 



that it is a Water-rail which is swimming over that 



narrow bit. Slush ! and the bird has gone out of 



sight. No dive that, for the water is too much 



disturbed — a pike has had him. These greedy 



creatures come up from the mere into the feeding 



stream that runs through places not yet explored, 



because it is impossible to get into them, to vary 



their fish diet with a little bit of fowl. As a rule, 



in most cases the accounts of fish are a little 



legendary, but not so in this instance ; if I were 



asked I should say that their weight in this water 



had been under-rated. I have seen pike here up 



to twenty-two pounds in weight, while as to the 



trout that so much fuss has been made about, all 



to no purpose, some of them run in that same water 



from three to four pounds. If these are not heavy 



enough for common brook fish, some people must 



