40 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



nature which, to my mind, not infrequently gains 

 in beauty by the mutilation, so admirably does it 

 fit into and harmonize with the landscape. At 

 one point there was a deep, nearly stagnant pool, 

 separated from the stream by a strip of wet, 

 rushy ground, its still dark surface covered with 

 water-lilies, not yet in bloom. They were just 

 beginning to show their polished buds, shaped 

 like snake's heads, above the broad, oily leaves 

 floating like islands on the surface. The stream 

 itself was, on my side, fringed with bulrushes and 

 other aquatic plants; on the opposite bank there 

 were some large alders lifting their branches 

 above great masses of bramble and rose-briar, all 

 together forming as rich and beautiful a tangle 

 as one could find even in the most luxuriant of 

 the wild, unkept hedges round the village. The 

 briars especially flourished wonderfully at this 

 spot, climbing high and dropping their long, slim 

 branches quite down to the surface of the water, 

 and in some places forming an arch above the 

 stream. A short distance from this tangle, so 

 abundantly sprinkled with its pale delicate roses, 

 the water was spanned by a small wooden bridge, 

 which no person appeared to use, but which had 



