TEED? WE ETO LIN FA PRL, 29 
generally (as well as water rats, water voles, 
and other so-called vermin), it is evident why 
the birds choose wet places for their breeding 
spots. Not only is some of the necessary 
food to hand here for themselves and _ their 
numerous progeny (they hatch out two to 
five young in each nest, and rear two broods 
yearly), but doubtless the latter get here 
their first lessons in the art of catching fish. 
There is a backwater close by, a dark 
undisturbed spot under trees, the young 
herons’ school we might call it. The trees 
here were willows, poplars and oaks, many 
hoary with age, and almost toppling into the 
water, their roots having loosened in the dark 
black soil. Through them poured shafts of 
soft yellowish green, almost ghostly, light, as 
if through the stained windows of some old 
cathedral (a very bad light for photography 
by the way). Overhead and around dozens of 
rooks’ nests had been built. Some were not 
more than twenty-five feet from the ground, 
but the birds being on an island, and, more- 
over, protected, they were not afraid to build 
