4 BIRD NOTES 



kinds, chiffchaffs, and whitethroats ; while plenty 

 of wrens and occasional coots haunt the bushes 

 below them. Sometimes a heron alights on the 

 marshy ground, through which a small rivulet 

 makes its way to the river ; sometimes a raven 

 flaps about in the boughs of the trees on the other 

 side ; but the yellow wagtail is there the constant 

 and never-failing delight. 



Once, and once only, I started a blue kingfisher, 

 a pleasure I shall never forget. But that was 

 much higher up the river and in a much wilder 

 part ; it was far from any road or even path, and 

 at the upper end of the reach, overhung with trees 

 and bushes. I was searching the beds of flint in 

 the shallow water for a rare flower that I had 

 once found there, when the lovely creature rose 

 not many yards from me and flew straight away 

 up the stream, with a slow and heavy flight, as if 

 it really was a weight of jewels that flashed upon 

 its splendid back. I saw it alight on a bough 

 hanging over the water, and followed it up as well 

 as I could ; but the roughness of the way obliged 

 me to take my eye off it, and I lost it again. 

 Again I put it up further on, but I never saw it 

 so close and well as 1 could have wished. 



Green woodpeckers are by no means rare birds 

 here. Strange and handsome creatures ! I 

 watched three feeding on my lawn one morning 



