BLACK-HEADED BUNTING, 187 



a summer's night on Surlingham* broad, and this 

 would, I feel, be scarcely complete, if I failed to add the 

 companion picture. But the task is no light one, and 

 few better than myself know the difficulty of conveying 

 by any power of words, to those who have never seen 

 them, a conception of the beauties of the broads in 

 summer, when the natural flatness of the scene itself is 

 unheeded in the contemplation of the richest verdure :— 



Far, far away, in its rich, display 



Of natui'e's wildest flowers, 



The marsh resounds with tuneful sounds, 



Unknown to upland bowers. 



Aloft the bleating snipe is heard, 



On trembling pinions soaring, 



And the titlark sings as he upward springs, 



His song of love outpouring. 



The wagtail flits with the bearded tits, 



Where the feathery reeds are growing. 



Or flirts his tail on the marsh mill sail, 



His taste for insects showing. 



E/ich babbling notes from sedge-birds' throats. 



Enliven the coverts green. 



And with hoarser cry the coot hard by. 



Is oftener heard than seen. 



The hern, too, springs on his lazy wings 



From the edge of the shallow waters ; 



And wild ducks rise with mingliug cries 



To seek more sheltered quarters. 



Still here and there, from a distant layer 



The skylark's notes are ringing. 



Close to her nest is the hen bird's breast. 



Her mate in the blue clouds singing. 



Whilst all around is the twittering sound 



Of the sand-martins flitting by, 



As their plumes they lave in the rippling wave. 



Or dart at the passing fly. 



* This broad diSers from almost all others I have seen, in the 

 little narrow channels which traverse it in all directions, opening 

 here and there into wide open waters, instead of presenting, as at 

 HickUng, Banworth, Barton, &c., a wide sheet of water, occa- 

 sionally dotted with small islands, and bordered with reeds. 

 2b2 



