66 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



Half "-Jwurs by the Brookside. 



I never tire of wandering along the banks of the 

 trout-stream ; not only where it babbles and gurgles 

 through the woods, and winds along the bottom of the 

 sloping meadows, but where it boils and leaps over the 

 rocks and stones high up the hills, or widens out in 

 rippling shallows and gleaming pools as it hurries on to 

 join the river. In the woods it is almost hidden in 

 places by the hazel bushes and brambles, and here the 

 shy Blackcaps make their nests. On its banks in the 

 more open parts of the forest the Wood Wrens build 

 and the Common Wren loves to weave its home. In the 

 open meadows the brookside is the haunt of the Yellow 

 Bunting, the Blackbird and the Thrush ; and where the 

 banks are high and steep and devoid of herbage the 

 Kingfishers tunnel into the loamy soil and make their 

 curious nest Higher up the hills the trout-stream is the 

 haunt of the Gray Wagtail and the Dipper ; lower down 

 on the plains the Common Sandpiper and the Heron are 

 both dwellers on its banks. The alder trees which grow 

 so tall and straight almost in the stream are favourite 

 nesting-places with the Misselthrush. Most birds love 

 the neighbourhood of the stream, and many delight to 

 bring up their young within ear of its babbling waters. 

 Insect life is plentiful in such places ; besides, birds love 

 to bathe themselves, and the vegetation is generally 



