WILD-FOWL IN SANCTUARY 227 



enough to make it necessary for it to invert its body 

 in order to reach the bottom. The neck was partly 

 bent, and the crown of the head touched the bottom, 

 its head and neck being used exactly like a bent- 

 handled hoe to search among the gravel and stones. 

 Its head was deeply tinged with red, from the iron in 

 solution in the water and mud. The result of stillness 

 and partial concealment in watching wild animals was 

 well illustrated during the ten minutes spent in observ- 

 ing the swan. Water-hens seemed to spring from the 

 flattened sedge by magic, as if rising from the ground, 

 and launched themselves on the stream, or tripped 

 about feeding among the sedges, where the ground was 

 rapidly thawing. 



The head and western bank of the lake are fringed 

 with a narrow belt of young plantation, made partly 

 with a view to sheltering the wild-fowl, partly to 

 screen the guns when the birds are shot in the winter. 

 The lake-keeper, whose cottage stands at the head of 

 the water, quoted as an example of the number of fowl 

 that collect in severe weather at Blenheim, that on one 

 occasion three guns shot a hundred and twelve snipe, 

 and between forty and fifty wild duck and teal. But 

 the birds are seldom shot, and at the time of our visit 

 seemed quite aware that no harm was intended ; and as 

 we passed close to the water on the opposite side to 

 that from which we had approached, partly screened by 

 the belt of young trees, they showed little inclination 

 to leave the water, with the exception of a solitary 

 heron, which, after watching us uneasily for some time, 



