ALONG THE RIVER 85 



practised ear for once that it is seen ; its thin but piercing 

 pipe is very distinctive among the cries of the riverside, 

 though it occasionally suggests one of the varied notes of 

 the common sandpiper, which haunts the Thames and other 

 lowland streams for some time on passage in late spring. 

 Sometimes when the elfin piping is heard, we look up and 

 catch a glimpse of the kingfisher spinning like a nebulous 

 blue meteor in and out of the curves of the stream, or swerving 

 directly across the meadows to the shelter of the willows ; 

 but often it flies so low behind the sedge-screen that we only 

 hear it pass. Kingfishers sit motionless on their perches, 



so as not to scare their prey ; but their plunge, when it 

 comes, is decisive. They strike the stream with a sounding 

 smack, and usually fly back to their perch at once before 

 tossing the minnow upright in their beak for convenience in 

 swallowing it. If they have young to feed, we see the fish 

 glittering in their bills as they spin off in the direction of the 

 nest. More rarely they hover over the stream before 

 plunging ; and this is the most beautiful of all their displays, 

 as the fanning wings multiply the shimmering iridescence. 

 Thanks to steady protection, kingfishers are now by no 

 means rare on the Thames water-system and many other 

 southern streams. They are scarcer by the rocky torrents 



