280 A DAY ON A NORFOLK MERE 



a kind of marsh as a pheasant loves. Is it possible 

 that news had reached her of the terrible floods 

 that had devastated so many parts of the world 

 during the last few months preceding, the Hoang 

 Ho in China, the Oder and the Maine in Germany, 

 the Theiss in Hungary, the Guadalquiver in Spain, 

 and, last of all, the Mississippi in North America, 

 and did she fear a like outburst on the part of the 

 "reedy Cam" and "the gentle Ouse"? I know 

 not ; but this I know, that the earlier explorers of 

 South America can hardly have been more surprised 

 when they found the Indians of the Orinoco region, 

 living, during the period of its annual devastating 

 flood, like birds, in the branches of gigantic trees, for 

 months together, than was the gamekeeper, when 

 he found one of his pheasants selecting so strange 

 a perch for the birth of her future family. With 

 this sight was brought to a conclusion the more 

 enjoyable part of a whole holiday, spent in what 

 most of those who read this chapter will now, I 

 think, agree with me in calling a very Paradise of 

 Birds. 



