THE KIXG-FISHER 65 



bough overhanging the current, its colours gleaming in 

 the shade like those of some strange jewel set with 

 sapphires, rubies and emeralds. 



There it would perch for hours, with fixed gaze and 

 bent head, watching for the passage of some small fry. 

 Suddenly it let itself drop straight down into the trans- 

 parent water; then it would reappear with some minnow 

 or stickle-back in its bill, flying towards its hidden nest. 

 It happened sometimes that after having dipped several 

 times, it reappeared with nothing in its bill ; it would 

 then fly up the current, uttering a low plaintive cry and 

 disappear again in search of some nook more abounding 

 in fish. 



^^ hy are river birds almost always sad ? The heron, 

 the curlew, the snipe are melancholy birds ; even the 

 white wag- tail, with its everlasting motion on the gravel 

 backwards and forwards, looks like a heartsick creature. 

 Is their sadness caused by the influence of their haunts ? 

 Large ponds bordered with willows and reeds, in which 

 the wind whistles, morning and evening mists, the 

 murmur of hidden forest springs, all these incite man to 

 melancholy ; do they act in the same manner on the 

 nervous system of birds ? One is inclined to believe so. 

 However, for the king-fisher as well as for the heron, 

 there is a more prosaic reason for their peevish disposi- 

 tion : the uncertainty of their daily subsistence, the 

 anxiety with which these birds have to watch for their 



