226 



THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



The pretty little snipe -like bird that skims with 

 graceful flight from the advancing angler, or runs 

 along the sandy bays of the stream, or lightly over 

 the lily leaves on the placid pool, is the sand- 

 piper, a bird not uncommon by most of our rivers. 

 It makes its nest in some sly hole in the bank, or 

 even dispenses with a nest altogether, and lays its 

 eggs in a hollow on the ground. 



Such, then, are the chief among an angler's 

 acquaintances, but there are many others he would 

 not willingly pass. The sand-martins sweeping and 

 whirling over the stream, dashing this way and that, 

 and altering their course with wonderful celerity, 

 in the pursuit of their insect prey, and drilling the 

 gravel escarpment with the numerous holes of their 

 nesting-places ; the water-wagtail merrily wagging 

 its tail, and snapping up the insects at the margin 

 of the water ; the gaudy dragon-flies hovering and 

 darting in the blazing sunlight ; the shining water- 

 beetles gyrating, multitudinous, in the quiet pools 

 these and many others come within the term of 

 the angler's acquaintances. And may they not be 

 the angler's friends too ? Even those which are 

 avowedly destructive to fish, is it too great a stretch 

 of clemency to spare them from slaughter, and 

 show them at least negative friendship ? Live and 

 let live is a good motto. There is enough and to 

 spare for all who are not greedy ; and where the fish 

 are decreasing, it is not from the depredations of 

 those whose cause we plead, but from the folly and 



