THE PAGEANT OF THE SEASONS 89 



another, these being followed by three more of 

 brightest blue, dazzling and changing colour as this 

 family of kingfishers skim on round the turn. I 

 follow as silently as possible, a difficult matter where 

 one has to make a path through the underwood. 

 I peep round the curve and see a shaking branch 

 which the birds have just left ; it strikes the water 

 as it trembles, making little ripples. By still pushing 

 on I am fortunate to see the brilliant-pi umaged birds 

 sitting on twigs by the water's edge ; they see me, 

 however, and double back down the stream. King- 

 fishers if followed will nearly always try to dart back 

 unobserved to the place from where they were first 

 seen. I am able to get close several times, but the 

 watchful old birds, when once disturbed, are shy, and 

 leave, always followed by their young, flying up or 

 down stream in single file, making the clear brook 

 more attractive by their presence, while the sense 

 of solitude is more complete. For where we find 

 the kingfisher, there Nature is commonly undis- 

 turbed. A kingfisher will return to the same perch 

 day after day, and if once this is discovered, an 

 observer has only to sit on the stream-side and wait. 

 There is no necessity to be concealed, as I have proved 

 many times, perfect stillness being all that is neces- 

 sary, and in this way I have had these brilliant birds 

 within three yards of me, and on one occasion even 

 less than a yard intervened. 



