ALONG THE RIVER 



191 



see the dull white patch on their chins ; and notice, as summer 

 goes on, how their sooty feathers get worn by rubbing in 

 their roosts, and bleached in the strong sun, until they gain 

 the same transparent greyish look at the edges that we see 

 in the ruffled plumage of the black swan, or the dowdy black 

 moth — dressed in insects' bombazine — which is known as the 

 Old Lady. This large dusky creature is also common in 

 boat-houses and other buildings by the waterside, but not 

 until July or August. 



By midsummer the water-wagtails and most of the small 



SAND-MARTINS 



singing-birds of the riverside have finished nesting, and are 

 in charge of dwindling troops of inexperienced young. But 

 moorhens and dabchicks seem never to grow tired of the 

 nursery, and go on nesting into August ; and midsummer is 

 the height of the nesting season in the scattered colonies of 

 reed-warblers. The reed-warblers sling their nests over 

 water on supporting stems, and prudently make sure that 

 the vegetation is ripe for its purpose before they trust to it. 

 Exceptionally they hang their nests to willow and lilac twigs 

 in withy-beds and gardens by the water ; but the traditional 

 prop of their house is the true reed, with canelike stem and 

 blue-grey flowering head, which grows in belts and beds not 

 too commonly by the edge of the river. Like all river- 



