300 THE KINGFISHER. [CHAP. v. 



The holiday stroller from the confinement of a large 

 town, as he tracks the retired footpath that skirts the 

 margin of some small brook overhung with alders and 

 willows, is startled by a shrill, sharp cry, and sees glanc- 

 ing past him one or two winged emeralds : in a moment 

 they are gone, and he walks on thinking of the brilliant 

 creatures that have just vanished from his gaze. Soon 

 he advances to a spot where the streamlet spreads into 

 an open pool : he sits down to rest, wondering at the 

 beauty of the dragon-flies, longing to reach the floating 

 water-lilies, and enjoying the perfume of the mint he has 

 trodden underfoot. He hears a short splash, he turns, 

 and sees the spreading circles on the water; he looks up, 

 and behold, on an outstretching branch, a bird whose 

 ruddy bosom alone meets his view. He remains mo- 

 tionless, watching his newly-discovered neighbour. Soon 

 the bird dashes into the water, and returns immediately 

 to its seat on the branch : in flight, it seems all blue ; 

 in repose, all ruddy-brown ! It is the same bird which 

 he saw before, but has two completely different as- 

 pects like those double-masquerade costumes, wherein 

 the front assumes one character, and the back another. 

 Again a plunge is made into the stream, and the bird 

 uprises, bearing a little fish in his beak ; this time he 

 returns not to his branch, but departs straight away like 

 a levelled rocket : perhaps the nest is near at hand. 



The arrival of the Kingfisher at his fishing station, is 

 as abrupt as his departure thence. The very first con- 

 venient perching- place that offers in his course, invites 

 him to alight, if water is hard by. An unexpected ex- 

 ample of this habit occurred to a gentleman on whose 

 veracity I can depend. He was angling near Norwich, 

 close by a bridge that crossed a small stream, whose 



