SOME BIRDS OF THE STREAM 67 



water ; and yet, unsteady as its flight is, this Httle 

 bird manages to reach x^fric's sunny shores every 

 autumn and return the following spring to its chosen 

 haunt by the rapid-flowing rock-bound streams of 

 dear old England. Near the Wye it commonly 

 nests on the railway embankment, which runs 

 parallel with and close to the river for many miles, 

 and many nests may be found within a comparatively 

 small area, though this bird is in no way gregarious. 



Then, too, the gaunt fisher Heron may be seen 

 standing knee-deep in the shallows, watching, a 

 monument of patience, for its finny prey. This fine 

 bird, although a frequenter of the stream, by no 

 means necessarily breeds close to it. Indeed, many 

 Heronries are miles from a river of any kind — but 

 then the Heron thinks nothing of its hundred miles a 

 day, and we have, during nest-time, seen them quite 

 fifty miles from the nearest Heronry, 



Occasionally we shall find an odd nest of this 

 species miles from the main colony. We remember 

 one such pair sometimes building them a nest in a 

 large willow-tree on a secluded farm in Bucks, and 

 had they not been disturbed, might have formed the 

 nucleus of a thriving Heronry. Many water voles, 

 even the full-grown ones, fall victims to the Heron ; 

 and great numbers of fish and eels are consumed by 

 him. 



We will not grudge him these ; for is he not the 

 last of our large inland birds to survive ? The Kite, 

 Buzzard, and Raven are gone, or nearly so, while 

 the Bustards, Cranes, and other marsh birds are quite 

 extinct ; and yet people who ouglit to know better 



