34 Spring 



passage, and what the nature of her prey when at early 

 dusk she left her brood to prowl round pond and 

 covert. The flavour of a water-bird has a peculiar 

 zest for Reynard and his cubs, or he would hardly 

 leave the well-stocked warren and the pheasantry for 

 the river sedges and the bulrushes by the mere. And 

 his taste is shared by the weasel, who will stealthily 

 leap on the mallard's back as she floats inshore, and 

 take a ducking for his pains if he cannot get at her 

 throat before she dives. 



In the quiet pond breeding goes on apace, and 

 soon grey nestlings are seen swimming in the parent's 

 wake, with tiny, dumpy flappers and long trains of 

 coots and those handfuls of living soot which come 

 from the nest of the moor-hen. The Spring moisture 

 and the hind's toil bring to the surface millions of grubs, 

 which keep the gull's larder always fully plenished ; 

 and ere the bare fields are quite hidden by green corn 

 and grass, when the rook begins to feel a difficulty 

 in foraging for her clamant young, and the stagnant 

 water is filled with weeds, and the islands are rank 

 with vegetation ; when bumpkins meeting on the road 

 cry out against the drought and the heat, then the 

 gull's sojourn at her inland haunt is well-nigh over. 

 The movement seaward is not made suddenly or in 

 combination. When the breeding season is done, the 

 black heads lose something of their brilliance, and 

 with the burnish goes the love of dalliance. The grey 

 fledglings, which do not achieve the dignity of a black 



