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but at least its stratagem in no way increases the 

 chance of discovery, whereas the industrious dabchick 

 does away with the possibility of your mistaking its 

 nest for a lump of stranded weed or one of the 

 numerous false nests .which, like the wren, she is in 

 the habit of making and abandoning before she finally 

 fixes upon that real receptacle for her eggs which she 

 is now advertising with such guileless simplicity. A 

 shot at this range would get rid of 



All the pretty chickens and their dam 

 At one fell swoop. 



And the shot ought to be fired, for there is, unfortu- 

 nately, no doubt of the destructiveness of these pretty 

 little fish-eating birds on a trout-stream ; but I have 

 not the heart to take advantage of my opportunity, 

 and hasten across the bridge. A kingfisher skims 

 along the little stream, hardly wider than a ditch, 

 which forms the boundary of the island on this side, 

 tracing in its arrowy flight a line of gleaming azure. 

 Knee-deep in the lush meadow-grass, with the green 

 of which their bright fawn-coloured coats form so pretty 

 a contrast, are the three heifer-calves my pedigree 

 Guernseys so kindly provided last year Sunflower, 

 the eldest ; Pease- Blossom, so-called because born on 

 Midsummer night's eve ; and Sweet Briar. They are 

 now more than a year old, and well-grown and person- 

 able little people, and they receive and seem to 

 appreciate my greeting and caressing hand as they 

 gather round me undeterred by the presence of their 

 old friend Ben. They have been handled and led 

 from babyhood, as no doubt their forbears were in the 

 island of which they are so valuable a product, and their 



