CHAPTER XIX. 



Course of the brook The birds' bathing-place Roach Jacks on 

 their journeys The stickleback's nest Woodcock The lake 

 Herons Mussels Reign of terror in the lake. 



A PLACE where the bank of the brook has been dug 

 away so as to form a sloping approach to the 

 water, in order that cattle may drink without difficulty, 

 is much visited by birds in summer. Some cartloads 

 of small stones originally thrown down to make a firm 

 floor to the drinking-place have in process of time 

 become worn into sand, which the rain has washed 

 into the water. This has helped to form a more than 

 usually sandy bottom to the water just there. Then a 

 bank of mud, or little eyot in the centre of the stream, 

 thickly overgrown with flags, divides the current in 

 two, and the swiftest section passes by the drinking- 

 place and brings with it more sand washed out from 

 the mud ; so that just at the edge there is a floor of 

 fine sand covered with water, which six inches from 

 shore is hardly an inch deep. This is just the bathing- 

 place in which birds delight, and here they come, 

 accordingly, all the summer through, day after day. 

 Sparrows, starlings, finches (including the beautiful 



