138 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



dead birds than I liked, which had been shot in 

 the winter-time. About this I have nothing to 

 say, but it proves that more of them are about 

 than people think. I like to see the quaint bird, 

 and to hear him grunt and squeak. Presently 

 he will be heard and not seen ; for when the young 

 are out of the nest, both parents, like the moor-hens 

 and the coots, will have to beware of pike. For 

 these by that time will have fully completed their 

 arrangements for a future supply of pike, and will 

 be coming back with voracious appetites and full 

 sets of teeth to the sedges and reed-beds, to snap 

 young water-fowl. Waders or swimmers, young 

 ducks or teal, grebes, coots, moor-hens, and rails, 

 all are liked by the hungry pike, and down they 

 go. If the pike are large, the older birds come 

 to grief; but these are very cautious, and keep 

 their young chicks in the most shallow and dense 

 part of the beds, where the fierce fish are not able to 

 swallow them, because the water is too shallow for 

 the fish to work their way up. 



The little grebe, or dabchick, is very busy now, 

 making his arrangements for his damp nest, although 

 he will not actually begin it for a week or more 



