By River and Pool. 197 



luxuriantly in the shallows Coot and Moorhen made 

 their nests, and their broods of black downy chicks 

 might be seen paddling about the broad flat leaves 

 of the water-lily and the candock, or resting and 

 sunning themselves on the floating vegetation. The 

 steel-blue Swallows and Martins come from the 

 adjoining meadows and park to dart to and fro with 

 shrill twitter, and thread their way beneath the 

 drooping branches of the chestnuts gaily ornamented 

 with their noble spikes of fair yet evil-smelling 

 bloom, like miniature candelabra. The Herons 

 all day long fly up and down from their nests in the 

 tree-tops to and from the shallows, where the roach 

 are an easy prey. How stately the big gray birds 

 look standing so solemn in the shallows! With 

 what patience they wait and watch and finally strike, 

 sending that formidable spear - like bill into the 

 doomed fish, which is quickly disposed of with a 

 grunt of satisfaction! Now and then the Kingfisher's 

 radiant beauty is reflected in the unruffled water as 

 he glides across ; at intervals a shy Water-rail or a 

 Grebe sails timidly out from the rushes, dives at the 

 least alarm, and the scarcely-ruffled surface indicates 

 the quick return under water to the sheltering 

 greenery. In winter these ponds are often visited 

 by Wild Ducks, Wigeons, and Teals, with sometimes 

 much rarer fowl. Indeed, the very uncertainty of 

 what might be found was one of the greatest attrac- 



