THE SEA-BLUE BIRD OF MARCH 403 



and, on this one occasion, as it seems to me, among 

 his severely accurate as well as supremely beautiful 

 allusions to bird-life and bird-lore, he sacrificed 

 something to the exigencies of the verse. 



The kingfisher has many enemies " collectors," 

 anxious to put him into a glass case ; ladies, the 

 slaves of fashion, who wear him in their hats ; 

 anglers, who construct their flies out of his wondrous 

 feathers ; and, worse still, fishing clubs, who place 

 a price upon his head, and leave an ignorant and 

 merciless water-bailiff to carry out their murderous 

 behests. Degenerate followers these of Izaak 

 Walton and his "gentle craft" ; for it is they who, 

 above most men, ought to take pleasure in that 

 which adds so much beauty and romance to the 

 riverside. But better days are coming. The 

 Thames Conservancy has already, as Mr Cornish 

 tells us, made kingfishers to be comparatively 

 common birds, in the Thames Valley. The love 

 of Nature and the love of beauty are growing 

 powers ; and the kingfishers, it is to be hoped, 

 may themselves expect, ere long, true " halcyon 



days." 



Next after the owl and crow tribes, I have always 

 thought that the " climbers" the woodpeckers, the 

 nut-hatch, and the tree-creeper are the most interest- 



