THE KINGFISHER AND ITS HOME 55 



dive so successfully, they were able to 

 capture fish for themselves. 



All through the summer they kept on 

 the lake. I saw them last one calm 

 autumn evening. The trees were golden, 

 and the water too, for the sun seemed 

 to have caught up the colour of the 

 yellow corn, and as it sank down it 

 threw back to the earth all of this glory. 

 Swallows were skimming over the silent 

 surface of the lake ; Wild Ducks and 

 half a dozen Grebes swimming around 

 made ripple wavelets which made the 

 water a deeper gold. There was no 

 music in the air, for the birds do 

 not give out their notes to a summer 

 that is dying, no matter how beautiful 

 those last days may be, but all around 

 there was a great stillness ; so silent 

 was it all, that one could hear the snap 

 of a Swallow's beak as it captured its 

 prey. The harsh quack-quack of the 

 Mallards and the deeper kuurk-kuurk of 



