ALONG THE RIVER 93 



heard as late as June, but the note of anxiety gradually 

 replaces it. Like redshank, and the ruff and bittern in one 

 or two haunts, snipe are distinctly re-establishing them- 

 selves. This is largely due to increased protection ; but 

 in the case of snipe and redshank it is probably owing also 

 to the spread of sewage farms, which form for marsh-birds 

 a safe and congenial, if a rather unsavoury, asylum. 



The touch of fen country associations suggested by the 

 snipe calling above the level meadows is renewed by many 



YOUNG SNIPE 



peeps of landscape along the larger rivers. Sometimes the 

 river diversifies a prosaic region of mildly undulating pastures, 

 and sometimes woods drape the cliffs, steeply falling to the 

 shore ; but often between the stream and the nearest hills 

 there is a mile or half a mile of green East Anglian scenery 

 set in alien surroundings. A group of poplars dominates the 

 level meadows, where a straight dike catches a stripe of 

 brilliant colour from the sunset sky ; or across the green 

 expanse, with its true fenland note of composed dignity, the 

 eye rests on the nodding gable of an old white wooden mill. 

 Only a few hundred yards away the scene may change to 



G 



