274 A DAY ON A NORFOLK MERE 



and follow up, for half a mile or so, the course of 

 the stream that runs into it. It flows through a 

 heathy bottom, enclosed, on one side, by a rich 

 deep wood, in which a perfect chorus of songsters 

 are doing their best for us the nightingale and 

 the blackcap, the whitethroat and the willow wren 

 among the most prominent. We have no time 

 to look for nests such as theirs to-day, nor have 

 they, as yet, well begun to build ; but a little 

 whinchat steals away from some long rushy grass 

 in the heather in front of us, and reveals five blue 

 eggs not sky blue, like the hedge sparrow's, 

 though they look so, at first sight, but mottled all 

 over, at the larger end, with infinitesimal brown 

 spots. We reach another small piece of water in a 

 hollow, which we do not see till we are close upon 

 it. The bog here is deeper and more treacherous 

 than any we have yet traversed, and the keeper 

 warns us to be careful, for, if we once break through 

 the comparatively firm crust of mud and rushes 

 at the top, we shall be up to our middles, or our 

 necks, or further still, before we can raise a cry for 

 help. This seems to be the favourite breeding 

 ground of the water birds. You leap from one 

 tussock of pampas-like grass to another, at the 

 imminent risk of a sudden submersion, and on three 



