298 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



him, and a swift race ensues, for they are quick-footed. 

 Suddenly she rises and flies off across the marsh, when the 

 fond young lover's heart swells with anguish, his sobs become 

 double, and he bows his elegant body as if she was look- 

 ing at him. Then he, too, flies after her with loud pipings ; 

 and perhaps in some shallow amongst the reed -stalks she 

 accepts his handsome red-legs, and they become one. 



And some daybreak in early April you hear the pair call- 

 ing from the big ronds or broad shores; and later, when 

 the sun bursts forth, you see them in the blue flashing over 

 the sere marshes ; and if, perchance, a leaden sky creep up 

 from the sou'-west, and break into fine grey rain glisten- 

 ing behind the sunny foreground, you may see these birds 

 flying hither and thither, piping sadly as they revel in the 

 soft, dreamy bath, whilst the calves have left cropping the 

 catkined sallow tips, and hidden in a lair 'mid the island 

 clumps of marsh growths ; and all the landscape is gleaming 

 with bright eyes, touches of light glistening from bedewed 

 eel-cabin, mill, or shepherd's refuge eyes that seem to wink 

 at the joyous birds, and look shyly upon a wherry with 

 lowered peak, recalling a maiden caught in a storm, with 

 her dress drawn around her. 



Soon the azure is filled with pairs of these wild birds, and 

 you may see them far away over the green sallow breakers 

 of this green sea, calling and hovering in search of a marsh, 

 one year mown, moist and full of tiny islets of grass, wherein 

 they can lay their speckled eggs. Or on the broad, where 

 the frothings lie embracing the young gladen shoots, you 

 see them flying from one side to the other, almost kissing 

 the water in their flight, or alighting by the mere-side, bury- 

 ing their sharp bills in the soft mud in search of food. And 

 should you startle them, perchance they jump up and fly off, 

 calling their flute-like toodle, oodle, oodle, oodle, changing 

 to a whistle-like uhii, uhu, uhu, as they recede into the 

 blue. 



When showery April shall have run half her course, you 



