8o IN A CHESHIRE GARDEN 



express the joy of living so plainly. I have 

 several times since seen one of these spotted 

 woodpeckers in the garden. One day (in 

 April, 1908) I watched the bird for a long 

 time as he visited in succession each of the 

 posts in a wire fence by the old river-bed. 



Green woodpeckers are rare in this part of 

 the country, but " lesser-spotted " are found 

 in Dunham Park, and the keeper tells me he 

 has seen them in Warburton Fox-cover. 



In the low-lying meadows by the Bollin, 

 half a mile away, kingfishers have always 

 been found, haunting the little water-courses 

 and ditches, but at one time we were able to 

 see them even from the garden itself. 



In the making of the Ship Canal a part 

 of the old river just beyond us was left 

 unfilled up, and formed a fair-sized pool. 

 Kingfishers used to come to this, and as long 

 as there was any water at all in the old river- 

 bed I often stood outside this house and 

 watched the blue streak of light as the bird, 

 with his peculiar shrill cry, flew straight as 

 an arrow past me. Even in August, 1899, 

 when what remained of the river was nothing 

 but seething mud, in which I am sure there 

 could have been no living fish, I disturbed 

 a kingfisher from an overhanging branch on 

 the bank. 



A friend in the village, a keen observer of 

 birds, has often seen, he tells me, that when 

 kingfishers fly from the meadows to the "pits" 



