A VILLAGE IN HAMPSHIRE 191 



the keeper's cottage, were a glorious thing to see, and 

 I noticed three more species, one dark bottle-green 

 (wings and all), another with orange-brown wings and 

 pale green body, and a third purplish-black with corus- 

 cating green wings, like the pirates in a pantomine. 



I went with the keeper to see his kingfishers (breath- 

 ing no word of my own), but we only saw them meet 

 for one to relieve the other and exchange a tender greet- 

 ing at the nesting hole. It struck me that these king- 

 fishers were breeding very late, and the ones higher up 

 the stream, no doubt, had nearly fledged their young. 1 



My trespassee was a queer one. He told me he had 

 always refused the bribes of bird-stuffers and collectors 

 to kill the woodpeckers, kingfishers and other rare birds 

 on the estate, and took pride in calling himself most 

 exceptional in this respect. For my part I told him 

 candidly what I thought of the ignoble business of 

 pheasant-rearing. So far from resenting what I said, 

 he seemed to comprehend my point of view, and I 

 could see that he shot his " vermin " (he killed a 

 hobby once) with reluctance, while owls he had the 

 surprising good sense to spare. Indeed, he had a 

 genuine liking for birds ; my sort was a secret vice 

 to him, and listening to me and half agreeing a kind 

 of delightful drug. Neither did he indulge in any of 

 the usual sentimental moral cant about " good birds " 



1 Courthope, by the way, mentions the Rother and its kingfishers 

 in The Paradise of Birds. 



Oh blissful hour 



When Blanche and Flavia joined with me, 

 Tri-feminine Directory, 

 Dispensed in latitudes below. 

 The laws of flounce and furbelow. 

 And held on bird and beast debate, 

 What lives should die to serve our state ! 

 At morn we sent the mandate forth ; 

 Then rose the hunter of the North, 

 And all the trappers of the West 

 Bowed at our feminine behest. 

 Died every seal that dared to rise 

 To his round air-hole in the ice ; 

 And by green Bother's reedy side 

 The blue kingfisher flashed and died. 



