BRITISH BIRDS AND BIRD LOVERS. 189 



contrasts of vegetation, is a walk down the little stream which 

 issues from some such fen, as we have fancied like Dart 

 from the wastes of Cranmere or Tweed from its parent moss 

 and merrily hastens onwards past cultivated fields till it attains 

 the dignity of a river, and laves the abodes of men. By its 

 eddies Virgil must once more limn the birds with that delicate 

 touch which is so characteristic of him, must tell how 



" Tepidum ad solem pennas in littore pandunt 

 Dilectse Thetidi alcyones ; " 



and again, with their note of joy from the adjacent oaks : 



" Liquidas corvi presso ter gutture voces 

 Aut quater ingeminant ; " 



and depict the falcon which pursues its quarry over the reed 

 beds as graphically as it would have been represented by 

 Landseer in the sister art. The flash of their wings in the sun- 

 light can be seen, 



" Qua se fert Nisus ad auras, 

 Ilia levem fugiens raptim secat sethera pennis." 



Onward the ornithologist fares, noticing every bird as he passes, 

 and still unable to shake off the poet's spell when Tereus and 

 hapless Itys and Procne skim before his path, 



" Nee gemere aeria cessabit turtur ab ulmo." 



Classical recollections must not, however, fascinate us too 

 long. The curious instincts of the birds to be met on the 

 river's banks are sufficiently charming in themselves. Who 

 can forget the thrill of pleasure with which 



" Nigh upon the hour 



When the lone hern forgets her melancholy, 

 Sets down his other leg, and stretching, dreams 

 Of goodly supper in the distant pool," * 



he has startled the bird from its reverie, and watched its heavy 

 flight as it dragged its legs over the placid stream till it could 



* Tennyson, Gareth and Lynette. 



