THE STREAM IN WINTER 209 



majority of Chaffinches apparently really en- 

 deavour to do. 



The Brook in winter presents a very sombre 

 contrast to what it is in spring and summer, when 

 gay butterflies flit along the banks and over the 

 surface of the stream ; when gaudy Kingfishers, are 

 also seen darting past the banks overgrown with 

 sweet-scented flowers of many colours. The trees, 

 bushes, and dead flower- stalks, which not long 

 ago were, so full of the beauty of life, are now 

 clothed by the touch of winter in a mantle of 

 frost In one sense they are still beautiful, how- 

 ever, although so different from what they were 

 in the brighter days of summer. 



The bushes immediately over the stream are 

 the most striking ; for these, before the water was 

 frozen, received more dampness than others farther 

 into the meadows. The hawthorn, for the second 

 time in the year, is sprinkled over with white.; 

 but it is frost instead of may, and the most 

 beautiful of crystals in many fantastic shapes 

 ornament its branches. 



The glade in the wood, where the Chiffchaff 

 used to call throughout the day, is now trans- 

 formed into a veritable fairy-bower, with pretty 

 Blue Titmice for its native, fairies, and some of 

 which are searching for food underneath the larger 



