226 IN THE ISIS VALLEY 



tournament, with much splashing and noise. In the 

 course of this amusement, one of the performers came 

 up from the depths almost under an old cock-swan, 

 which was sleeping with its head " under the blankets " 

 that is to say, its wing-coverts and resented the 

 disturbance by a vicious bite which called the whole 

 company to order. Most inland lakes, except those 

 Surrey pools where the water seems to be held naturally 

 upon an ironstone bottom, are river-fed, and shallow 

 and sedgy at the head where the stream enters. Blen- 

 heim Lake is no exception to this rule, and some acres 

 at its upper end are covered by yellow reeds, through 

 which the Gleam cuts a winding channel of deep-green 

 water. This is natural cover for the fowl, and, though 

 frost and snow had beaten down the sedge, it was alive 

 with coots and snipe and moor-hens. There, from 

 behind a tree, we watched for some time a snipe court- 

 ing, at least so we judged, for the object of its atten- 

 tions was concealed in a little tuft of sedge. The snipe 

 ran round this bower setting up its wings, and flirting 

 its tail in very gallant fashion, turning round and 

 bowing with all the airs and graces of a pigeon making 

 love. At the extreme head of the lake, in the swift, 

 narrow current of the Gleam, a fleet of swans were 

 feeding, one behind the other, an old cock-swan taking 

 the post of danger and of profit next to the conduit 

 from which the water enters. By hiding behind the 

 bridge-parapet for some time, and then carefully 

 peering over, it was possible to observe exactly 

 the way in which a swan feeds in water just deep 



