SOME BIRDS OF THE WATERFALLS 175 



minnows and sticklebacks forming the principal 

 part. Water-beetles, leeches, larvae and small trout, 

 as well as the young of coarse fish are, however, all 

 partaken of at times, and, during the rigour and frost 

 of winter, the kingfishers betake themselves to the 

 estuaries of tidal rivers, where their food of molluscs 

 and shore-haunting creatures is daily replenished. 

 Old naturalists aver that the bird brings up its prey in 

 its feet, but this is never so, as all food is taken with 

 the beak. 



Ill 



THE GREY WAGTAIL 



A BEAUTIFUL little bird that haunts our rocky 

 streams is the grey wagtail not a very well-named 

 bird, for there is more of yellow than of grey in its 

 delicate colouring. A lovely picture of it comes to 

 my mind as I write. It is a June morning and I am 

 standing on a slight high bridge thrown from bank to 

 bank of a wooded gorge. Above the level of my 

 eye rocks are heaped up towards an opening between 

 the trees; down the face of the rocks a mountain 

 torrent rushes tumultuously. The air is cool with 

 spray; and the wood-sorrel, from which the tiny 

 flower-bells have only just fallen, makes bright green 

 patches in the shadow. Clinging to a steep wet 

 slab of rock, and looking as if it had risen straight 



