98 IN PURSUIT OF THE MAY FLY 



a trout is ten times enhanced by his shouts of en- 

 joyment as he deftly places the net under him. 

 " Now, sir," cries he, " we are going to have some 

 sport ! " He knows all the flies in my book much 

 better than I ; he can tie my flies much more quickly 

 than I can. He climbs trees up to most dangerous 

 places like a squirrel or a monkey, and brings down 

 my hung-up fly in no time. If he cannot reach the 

 branch overhanging a deep hole he whips out a 

 knife and off comes the branch in a jiffy. He 

 knows all the birds on the river, their names and 

 their nests. He showed me a kingfisher's nest in 

 a hole in the bank ; he found a water-ouzel's nest 

 with four eggs in it; that was when I was down 

 here some weeks ago, now the old birds are busy 

 feeding the young ones. One day he drew my 

 attention to a moor-hen's nest built on a pile of 

 segs 1 in a little island amid-stream; there were five 

 eggs in it, and another nest close by with two eggs. 



The next day he cried, "They boys have bin 

 here, sir ; all them eggs is gone ! " He is very well 

 educated, and is fond of rolling out fine words 

 sometimes, but he prefers the vernacular. There 

 are several pairs of sandpipers on our stretch of 

 the river, and he knows of one nest with four eggs 

 in it ; he says it is funny to see the antics of the old 

 ones, crying "wheet, wheet," and trying to draw 

 him off from the nest. 



I lost him one day when I sadly wanted him. 

 At a point where the river flows under the railway 



1 Sfg is a local term for sedge. A. A. 



