IV 



WHERE the stream broadened and mixed with 

 the river, there existed a dense and extensive rush- 

 bed an island of rushes separated by a deep 

 channel, some twelve or fourteen yards in width 

 from the bank. This was a favourite nesting- 

 place of the sedge-warblers; occasionally as many 

 as a dozen birds could be heard singing at the 

 same time, although in no sense together, and 

 the effect was indeed curious. This is not a song 

 that spurts and gushes up fountain-like in the 

 manner of the robin's, and of some other kinds, 

 sprinkling the listener, so to speak, with a spark- 

 ling vocal spray; but it keeps low down, a song 

 that flows along the surface gurgling and prattling 

 like musical running water, in its shallow pebbly 

 channel. Listening again, the similitude that 

 seemed appropriate at first was cast aside for 

 another, and then another still. The hidden 



36 



