120 ON THE MOOR 



fancy as he passed. From the slightly raised 

 station he commanded a wide outlook across 

 the waste, whose monotony the pool with its 

 yellow reeds served in some measure to relieve. 

 The moor, drear and barren though it was, 

 furnished hospitality to a few migrant birds ; 

 a jack snipe fed within a dozen yards of the 

 hare, a flock of golden plover was on the ground 

 out of his ken beyond the pool. Later, eleven 

 in all, they flew with musical whistlings over 

 the reeds and across his front. Nor were 

 these the only feathered visitors. Soon, as the 

 weather grew colder, duck, widgeon, and teal 

 visited the pool to feed, arriving at night- 

 fall and leaving at dawn for the sea, where 

 they rested through the day. Their line of 

 flight was only a little wide of the mound, and 

 the hare was always back in time to see the 

 skeins go past. More than once too he 

 caught sight of the dusky forms of otters steal- 

 ing back to the clifl's ; they were returning 

 from a raid on the waterfowl. 



But nothing is of long continuance in the 

 wild. The visits of the duck were abruptly 

 terminated by the freezing of the pool, and a 

 phalarope, whom the lone water had attracted, 

 was driven away at the same time. 



The plover remained, the snipe foraged along 



