162 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 



away to skim over the sedgy pool, where he hovers a 

 short while. He now enters upon the grass field, when 

 a partridge springs off, and he pursues it with a rapid, 

 gliding flight like that of the sparrow-hawk ; but they 

 have turned to the right, and the wood conceals them 

 from our view. In the meantime the female has sprung 

 up, and advances, keenly inspecting the ground, and so 

 heedless of our presence that she passes within twenty 

 yards of us. Away she speeds, and in passing the pool 

 again stoops, but recovers herself, and, rising in a beauti- 

 ful curve, bounds over the plantation, and is out of 

 sight. British Birds, vol. iii. pp. 371, 372. 



16. THE GOLDEN PLOVER. 



Many a time and oft, in the days of my youth, when 

 the cares of life were few and the spirits expansile, and 

 often, too, in later years, when I had made a temporary 

 escape to the wilderness to breathe an atmosphere un- 

 tainted by the effluvia of cities, and ponder in silence 

 on the wonders of creative power, have I stood on the 

 high moor and listened to the mellow notes of the 

 plover, that seemed to come from the grey slopes of the 

 neighbouring hills. Except the soft note of the ring- 

 plover, I know none so pleasing from the grallatorial 

 tribes. Amid the wild scenery of the rugged hills and 

 sedgy valleys, it comes gently and soothingly on the 

 ear, and you feel, without being altogether conscious of 

 its power, that it soothes the troubled mind, as water 



