I08 love's MEINIE. 



yards down the stream, and ' fly ' * back to 

 the place it had just left, to perform the same 

 manoeuvre the next minute, the silence of 

 the interval broken by its cheerful warbHng 

 song." 



92. In which, you see, we have the reason 

 for its being called ' water-blackbird,' being, 

 I think, the only one of the dabchicks that 

 really sings. Some of the others, (sandpipers) 

 pipe ; and others, the stints, say * stint ' in 

 a charming manner ; but none of them sing 

 except the oiselle. Very singularly, the 

 black-bodiced one seems to like living near 

 manufactories. "The specimen in the Nor- 

 wich Museum," says Mr. Gould, " is the 

 one mentioned by Mr. Lubbock, in 1845, as 

 ' lately ' shot at Hellesdon Mills ; and two 

 others are stated by the same author to have 

 been seen at different times by trustworthy 

 observers at Marlingford and Saxthorpe. Of 

 more recent occurrence I may mention a male 

 in my own collection, which was brought to 

 me in the flesh, having been shot in November, 



* "Wing its way" in the ornithological language. I 

 shall take leave usually to substitute the vulgar word ' fly,' 

 for this poetical phrase. 



