138 WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



ground, but failed to get it as it went into the 

 tangle. 



For about fifty yards there is a sullen narrow run 

 of water which empties direct into the mere. Here 

 there is not a sound, not even a rustle of the reeds, 

 or a nod of a simple reed-tassel ; not even the 

 chiding of a Reed Wren, or the babbling chatter 

 of a Sedge Warbler. But I do not give up hope 

 of finding what I have come to look for ; if a Rail 

 is about at all I shall see him here. A water-vole 

 runs out from the swamp along the edge of the 

 water at least by the movement I imagine it at 

 first to be a vole ; but I am deceived, for it enters 

 the water, and then I discover through my glasses 

 that it is a Water-rail which is swimming over that 

 narrow bit. Slush ! and the bird has gone out of 

 sight. No dive that, for the water is too much 

 disturbed a pike has had him. These greedy 

 creatures come up from the mere into the feeding 

 stream that runs through places not yet explored, 

 because it is impossible to get into them, to vary 

 their fish diet with a little bit of fowl. As a rule, 

 in most cases the accounts of fish are a little 

 legendary, but not so in this instance ; if I were 

 asked I should say that their weight in this water 

 had been under-rated. I have seen pike here up 

 to twenty-two pounds in weight, while as to the 

 trout that so much fuss has been made about, all 

 to no purpose, some of them run in that same water 

 from three to four pounds. If these are not heavy 

 enough for common brook fish, some people must 



