A Heron Tickled with a Trout Rod. 231 



longer alone ; instead with one of the wagtails, its 

 foster-mother, clinging against the side of the cage, 

 and feeding it ! The window was open, and through 

 this she had entered ; but how it knew of the young 

 cuckoo being there is the puzzle, for the place of the 

 nest was some way off, and when the chick was taken 

 out no wagtail appeared to be about. The only plausible 

 explanation is, that some signal note may have been 

 sounded through the open window, heard and mutually 

 understood by the wagtail outside and the young cuckoo 

 within. I may add that the wagtail came regularly 

 afterwards into the room, and fed her foster-child till 

 the latter was full grown. 



A HERON TICKLED WITH A TROUT ROD. 



One of my friends, an ardent disciple of " Izaak," with 

 home near Abergavenny, gives me relation of a curious 

 incident that occurred to him some time ago. He was 

 out angling in the Usk, and while working along the 

 river's side came upon a small but deep inflowing stream, 

 a brook with high banks, across which passage had to be 

 made by a plank. As it chanced, this slender bridge, 

 through some accident, had got displaced, one end of the 

 plank being down in the water, so forcing the angler to 

 the alternative of a round-about or wade. That, how- 

 ever, was matter for after- consideration, since what he 

 saw at the moment engrossed all his thoughts this a 

 heron standing upon the plank, near to the point where 

 it went under the water. With eyes intent on something 

 subaqueous, the bird neither saw nor beard him, as be 



