A HAMPSHIRE TROUT STREAM 129 



What abundant life there is in this meadow beside 

 the lucid Itchen ! Most living things in the water 

 and on the land are making honeymoon ; only the 

 trout, cold-blooded creatures, having transacted matri- 

 mony during the long winter nights, are free to cruise 

 about with no more sentimental aim than to fill 

 their stomachs ! Dabchicks, coots, water-hens, wild- 

 ducks, and water-rats are intent on far more tender 

 cares. A pair of great spotted woodpeckers are 

 enlarging the premises they occupied last year in the 

 dead branch of a poplar. On the trellised wall of the 

 fishing-cottage a pair of chaffinches are putting the 

 finishing touches to their new nest, a masterpiece of 

 art tapestry. It is within a few feet of the old one, 

 which, after the young brood fledged out of it last 

 June, a pair of spotted flycatchers faked up into a 

 receptacle for their eggs. These, being among the 

 latest of our summer migrants to arrive, have not 

 much time to spend on the niceties of architec 

 ture, and often are content to use second-hand 

 furniture. 



