8o BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



fringe is not a straight line, but curves 

 in and out, and hardly the same thickness 

 or length for many yards. Away in the 

 farther corner there is a break in the 

 green where a tributary feeds the lake. 

 In the middle of the springtime we see 

 delicious shades of green here, no two 

 trees alike, and the tall waving reed- 

 border changes every moment as the 

 wind-ripples play over it. High up over 

 the bank beyond the small stream a little 

 red-roofed cottage is half hidden amongst 

 the shades of green, and the white lock- 

 gates show up almost too distinctly. In 

 the meadow above the cottage, the Manor 

 House, so neat and trim, surrounded 

 with its cushion-like hedges, stands, very 

 little of the red house visible for the 

 trees. The distance is clear in the 

 evening light, and the Chiltern Hills, 

 for the chief part thickly wooded, seem 

 to be covered with even more tints of 

 green than we see around the lake. 



