Favourite Resort of Kingfishers 279 



belief in the venom of the toad is still current, and some 

 will tell you that they have had sore places on their hands 

 from having accidentally touched one. 



They say, too, that an irritated snake, if it cannot 

 escape, will-strike at the hand and bite, though harmless. 

 Snakes will, indeed, twist round a threatening stick ; and, 

 as it is evidently a motion induced by anger, the question 

 arises whether they have some power of constriction. If 

 so, it is slight. In summer a few snakes may always be 

 found by the stream that runs through the fields near 

 Wick Farm. 



This brook, like many others, in its downward course 

 is checked at irregular intervals by hatches, built for the 

 purpose of forcing water out into the meadows, or up to 

 ponds at some distance from the stream at which the 

 cattle in the sheds drink. Sometimes the water is thus 

 led up to a farmstead ; sometimes the farmstead is situate 

 on the very banks of the brook, and the hatch is within a 

 few yards. Besides the movable hatches, the stream in 

 many places is crossed by bays (formed of piles and clay), 

 which either irrigate adjacent meads or keep the water in 

 ponds at a convenient level. 



A lonely moss-grown hatch, which stands in a quiet 

 shady corner not far from the lake, is a favourite resort of 

 the kingfishers. Though these brilliantly coloured birds 

 may often be seen skimming across the surface of the 

 mere, they seem to obtain more food from the brooks and 

 ponds than from the broader expanse of water above. In 

 the brooks they find overhanging branches upon which to 

 perch and watch for their prey, and without which they 

 can do nothing. In the lake the only places where such 

 boughs can be found are the shallow stretches where the 

 bottom is entirely mud, and where the water is almost 



