Favourite Bathing-place of Birds 287 



CHAPTER XIX. 



COURSE OP THE BROOK THE BIRDS' BATHING-PLACEROACHJACK. 

 OX THEIR JOURNEYS THE STICKLEBACK'S NEST WOODCOCK THE 

 LAKE HERONS MUSSELS REIGN OF TERROR IN THE LAKE. 



A PLACE where the bank of the brook has been dug away 

 so as to form a sloping approach to the water, in order 

 that cattle may drink without difficulty, is much visited by 

 birds in summer. Some cartloads of small stones originally 

 thrown down to make a firm floor to the drinking-place 

 have in process of time become worn into sand, which the 

 rain has washed into the water. This has helped to form 

 a more than usually sandy bottom to the water just there. 

 Then a bank of mud, or little eyot in the centre of the 

 stream, thickly overgrown with flags, divides the current 

 in two, and the swiftest section passes by the drinking- 

 place and brings with it more sand washed out from the 

 mud ; so that just at the edge there is a floor of fine sand 

 covered with water, which six inches from shore is hardly 

 an inch deep. This is just the bathing-place in which 

 birds delight, and here they come, accordingly, all the 

 summer through, day after day. 



Sparrows, starlings, finches (including the beautiful 

 goldfinches), blackbirds, and so on, are constantly to and 

 fro. Often several of different species are bathing together. 

 The wagtails, of course, are there. The wagtail wades 

 into the water and stands there. Sometimes he has the 



