A LONDON TROUT 61 



arrangement and composition so that, though still a 

 chatter, it is a tasteful one. At intervals he intersperses 

 a chirp, exactly the same as that of the sparrow, a chirp 

 with a tang in it. Strike a piece of metal, and besides the 

 noise of the blow, there is a second note, or tang. The 

 sparrow's chirp has such a note sometimes, and the sedge- 

 bird brings it in tang, tang, tang. This sound has given 

 him his country name of brook-sparrow, and it rather spoils 

 his song. Often the moment he has concluded he starts 

 for another willow stole, and as he flies begins to chatter 

 when halfway across, and finishes on a fresh branch. 



But long before this another bird has commenced 

 to sing in a bush adjacent ; a third takes it up in the 

 thorn hedge ; a fourth in the bushes across the pond ; 

 and from farther down the stream comes a faint and dis- 

 tant chatter. Ceaselessly the competing gossip goes on 

 the entire day and most of the night ; indeed, sometimes 

 all night through. On a warm spring morning, when the 

 sunshine pours upon the willows, and even the white 

 dust of the road is brighter, bringing out the shadows in 

 clear definition, their lively notes and quick motions 

 make a pleasant commentary on the low sound of the 

 stream rolling round the curve. 



A moorhen's call comes from the hatch. Broad 

 yellow petals of marsh-marigold stand up high among 

 the sedges rising from the greyish-green ground, which is 

 covered with a film of sun-dried aquatic grass left dry 

 by the retiring waters. Here and there are lilac-tinted 

 cuckoo-flowers, drawn up on taller stalks than those that 

 grow in the meadows. The black flowers of the sedges 

 are powdered with yellow pollen ; and dark green sword- 

 flags are beginning to spread their fans. But just across 

 the road, on the topmost twigs of birch poles, swallows 

 twitter in the tenderest tones to their loves. From the 



