DAYS IN DOVE DALE 43 



curtsies, displaying his white bib and tucker 

 just like a national school-girl. What an in- 

 dustrious little chap he is he works as hard 

 and perseveringly as the starlings on my lawn 

 or in my mulberry tree ! 



I calculate that if every time he pecks the 

 moss-covered rocks in the river, or dips his 

 head in the water, he kills an insect or a fish, 

 he must have swallowed no less than 1,800 

 articles of food, insect or fish, in the half hour 

 he gave me the pleasure of his company. 



He not only went up the water with me 

 from the point where the river touches the 

 road up to the bridge, but he followed me 

 back again to the same point, giving me every 

 now and then his jerky little curtsey, which 

 said plainly enough " I'm pleased to see you, 

 stranger, in these parts. Good-bye ! " and away 

 he sailed, just skimming the water in his rapid 

 flight. 



No sooner had I parted with my pretty little 



the bird this is as impossible as that human beings should 

 rise into the air. Be this as it may, I distinctly aver that 

 I saw the bird dive into the water and disappear for a 

 few seconds on two or three occasions during my short 

 observation. 



