io6 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



these effects are beyond the reach of his art. And on 

 this fairy lake in the midst of the pale green field, its 

 blue surface ruffled by the light wind, floated three or 

 four white ducks; whiter than the sea-gulls, for they 

 were all purest white, with no colour except on their 

 yellow beaks. The light wind ruffled their feathers too, 

 a little, as they turned this way and that, disturbed at 

 my approach; and just then, when I stood to gaze, the 

 sun shone full out after the passing of a light cloud, 

 and flushed the blue pool and floating birds, silvering 

 the ripples and causing the plumage to shine as if with 

 a light of its own. 



"I have never seen a more beautiful thing!" I ex- 

 claimed to myself; and now at the end of the long day 

 it remains in my mind, vividly as when I looked at it 

 at that moment when the sunbeams fell on it, and is 

 so persistent that I have no choice but to write it down. 

 The beauty I saw was undoubtedly due to the peculiar 

 conditions — to the blue colour of the water, the ruffling 

 wind, the whiteness of the plumage, and the sudden 

 magic of the sunlight; but the effect would not have 

 been so entrancing if the floating birds had not also been 

 beautiful in themselves — in shape and in their surpassing 

 whiteness. 



Now I am quite sure the reader will smile and per- 

 haps emit the sound we usually write pish — a little 

 sibilant sound expressing contempt. For though he will 

 readily admit that the sun beautifies many things, he 

 draws the line at a duck — the common domestic one. 

 Like all of us, he has his prepossessions and can't get 



