SOME BIRDS OF THE WATERFALLS 171 



fishery. It is well known that among the chief 

 enemies of spawn are the larvae known as caddis- 

 worms, that of the dragon-fly, May, and stone-fly, 

 and also of various water-beetles. Now all these 

 have been found in the stomach of the dipper, and 

 therefore it must confer a decided benefit on the 

 trout streams and salmon rivers which it haunts. 



II 



THE KINGFISHER 



OF all our British birds none is so beautiful, or so 

 secluded in its habits, as the kingfisher. Its presence 

 is peculiarly in keeping with the rapid, rocky trout- 

 streams which it loves to haunt. Nowhere common 

 throughout the country, it is comparatively so in the 

 Lake District. It breeds along the banks of the 

 Caldew, Petteril and Eden; and also affects those 

 of the Kent, Mint and Sprint. Its low, arrow-like 

 flight, as it darts like a streak of azure, green and 

 gold, is familiar to every angler. He hears the bird 

 far down stream ; it comes under the old ivied bridge, 

 passes like a flash, and is gone; gone to the mossy, 

 dripping waterfall, to the sandbank, or up the lime- 

 stone-paved runner to the " Scroggs." Although 

 glowing with metallic lustres, and beautiful in its 

 adaptations and every movement, the kingfisher 



