By River and Pool. 187 



waters are stained as with ochre from the filthy 

 " wheel swarf", and poisoned with refuse from dyes 

 and sundry chemicals. Yet ev^en in these forbidding 

 places bird-life is not altogether absent, and from 

 time to time Wagtails, Pipits, and such-like species 

 may be remarked on passage even in the centre of 

 so grimy a place as Sheffield. Above the towns 

 where the water still runs clear, and some miles 

 below them where the sediment has settled and the 

 water again become more purified, these canals and 

 rivers are favourite haunts of birds. Then far away 

 amidst rural scenes there are niany meres and clear 

 pools where Nature is still undefiled by man; in 

 some of the suburban areas there are clear still mill- 

 dams, which dri\e the grinding wheels, and which 

 are yet so pure that trout live in them in abun- 

 dance. 



Now, even about such a prosaic spot as a mill- 

 dam there is usually not a little to interest the lover 

 of birds. That refulgent avine s^em, the Kingrfisher. 

 is a freejuent haunter of the shuttles, and the dyke 

 just above and Ijelow the sluice. We have seen this 

 bird perch on a branch sticking out of the shallow 

 water at the fu' end of a mill-dam and plunge again 

 and again into the pool in chase of minnows, and 

 not filty yards away a dozen sturdy Sheffield grinders 

 were hard at work astride their stones in tlie hull 

 which resounded with the fitful deafening roar and 



