WILD LIFE IN SEVERN ESTUARY 11 



the gleam of water everywhere around them, and with 

 the open air and bright sunshine and blue sky above 

 them, they seem indeed no unfit emblem of hope. 



And the wanton lapwing himself ? There he 

 stands in the distance, with an anxious eye turned 

 upon us ; poised on one leg with the other half lifted ; 

 now bending forward his body gracefully, now 

 breaking into a quick run with his plumage showing 

 the shimmering of green amid the black and pure 

 white in the sunlight. And now at last turning to 

 us his beautiful crest. 



In the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself 

 another crest. Well did poet immortalize him and 

 link him with other vernal emblems of the season 

 in a passage which here in particular one feels to 

 breathe the spirit of refulgent life as it glows ardent 

 and radiant in the increasing procession of our 

 northern year. 



Some of the birds come quite close with strange 

 and anxious antics, both in the air and on the ground, 

 as if inviting us to follow them. The practised eye 

 reads the situation. . The young, which leave the nest 

 as soon as they are hatched, must be somewhere 

 close by. You look and stare ; there can be nothing, 

 for there is absolutely no cover. Yet even as the eye 

 relinquishes its quest something stirs ; and you see 

 it is a young lapwing among the clods, just hatched, 

 which with its protective colouring has been hiding 

 itself with extraordinary effectiveness against the lap 

 of mother earth. You take the quaint little piebald 

 ball of fluff in your hand and it stands erect, looking, 

 as very young animals so often do, wizened and aged 

 after the tremendous experience of an hour's inde- 

 pendent existence. 



