BRITISH BIRDS. 299 



lage school-boy witnesses with delight the antic 

 movements of the busy shapeless little brood, some- 

 times under the charge of a foster mother, who, 

 with anxious fears, paddles by the brink, and 

 utters her unavailing cries, while the Ducklings, 

 regardless of her Avarnings, and rejoicing in the 

 element so well adapted to their nature, are splash- 

 ing over each other beneath the pendent foliage; 

 or, in eager pursuit, snap at their insect prey on 

 the surface, or plunge after them to the bottom : 

 some, meanwhile, are seen perpendicularly sus- 

 pended, with the tail only above water, engaged 

 in the general search after food. 



Scenes like these, harmonized by the clack of 

 the mill and its murmuring water-fall, afford plea- 

 sures little known to those who have always been 

 engaged in mere worldly pursuits : but such pic- 

 turesque beauties pass not unnoticed by the young 

 naturalist; their charms invite his first attentions, 

 and probably bias his inclinations to pursue studies 

 which enlarge and exalt his mind, and can only 

 end with his life. 



