244 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



for there is one here and there in the grass gliding 

 away at the jar of the earth under your footstep. 

 Warmth and moisture favour their increase, as on a 

 larger scale in tropic lands ; and parts of the mead 

 are often under water when a freshet comes down the 

 brooks so choked with flags that they cannot carry it 

 away quickly. 



The osier-bed in the angle where the brooks join is 

 on slightly higher ground ; for although the withy likes 

 water at its roots it should not stand in it. Springing 

 across the ditch, and entering among the tall, slender 

 wands, which, though they look so thick part aside 

 easily, you may find on the mound behind the butt 

 of an oak sawn just above the ground ; and there, in 

 the shade of the reeds, and with a cool breeze now 

 and again coming along the course of the stream, it 

 is delicious in the heat of summer to repose and listen 

 to the murmur of the water. 



The moor-hens come down the current slowly, search- 

 ing about among the flags ; the reed warblers are 

 busy in the hedge ; at the mouth of his hole sits a 

 water-rat rubbing his face between his paws ; across 

 the stream conies his mate, swimming slowly with 

 one end of a long green sedge in her mouth, and the 

 rest towed behind on the surface. They are the 

 beavers of our streams amusing, intelligent little 

 creatures, utterly different in habits from the rat of 

 the drain. Move but a hand, and instantly they fall 

 rather than dive into the water, making a sound like 

 " thock " as they strike it ; and then they run along 



