90 HILLSIDE, ROCK, AND DALE 



Here the stream broadens out, and "near the" banks 

 water-ranunculus is in full flower. The petals and 

 leaves are disturbed as a tiny fish, basking in the 

 sunbeams which penetrate the leafy trees, darts away, 

 frightened by our shadow falling on the water. Two 



young water - voles 

 dive from the opposite 

 bank, and a water- 

 hen calls ; a sable 

 blackbird flies away 

 uttering a loud chat- 

 ter, surprised while 

 I drinking in a crystal 

 pool formed by the 

 / water dripping into a 

 shallow basin of clay; 

 and some squirrels 

 farther from the bank 

 dart up a tree as 

 the blackbird flies 

 past. The vegetation on the opposite bank 'moves; 

 a rustle, and a weasel appears, the lithe, arch-backed 

 little cannibal sniffs the flowers, and then the ground 

 as he slowly passes on. We notice he is in a vole's 

 track, or well-trodden pathway, and we pity the vole, 

 for we well know what his fate will be. But to 

 follow this stream to its source would occupy too 

 much time, and if I dwell on one part of this 



COAL-TIT 



