178 Poachers and Poaching. 



water-beetles. Now all these have been found 

 in the stomach of the dipper, and therefore it 

 must confer a decided benefit on the salmon and 

 trout streams which it haunts. 



Of all our British birds none is so beautiful 

 or so secluded in its habits as the kingfisher ; 

 and its presence is peculiarly in keeping with 

 the rapid, rocky trout streams which it loves 

 to haunt. Although glowing with metallic 

 lustres, and beautiful in its adaptation and 

 every movement, the kingfisher builds but a 

 careless nest, a loose structure of dry fish 

 bones the hard indigestible parts of its food 

 which, in common with birds of prey, it has 

 the power of ejecting in pellets by the mouth. 

 Again, let us look out the bird in its haunts. 

 We follow the course of the hazel-fringed stream 

 over a mile of its pebbly reaches ; now a dipper 

 flits from a green mossy stone, and a pair of 

 sandpipers start with tremulous wings and skirt 

 the shingle-strewn banks. Among the flags the 

 water-voles gnaw the sweet saccharine aquatic 

 plants, and the water-hens run and hide under 

 the friendly roots of an overhanging thorn. 

 The May-fly is upon the stream, the silvery fresh 

 run fish are all animation, and even the great 

 black trout in the " willow dub" condescends 

 to take a fat blue-bottle that is spinning round 

 and round the pool. Dragon-flies dart hither 



