Water- Birds and Rushes. 



193 



In "The Dance of the Flowers in Welcome of the 

 Spring " we read : 



" The bulrush, safely guarded about 

 With full drawn sword, was the sentinel stout 

 That o'er the gathering kept close ward, 

 As the flowers danced merry upon the sward : 

 And the water-soldiers their adjutants were, 

 Who on their shoulders ball-epaulets wear." 



The rushes are close associates of the flags and 

 sedges ; they are, in fact, the democracy of which these 

 are the aristo- 

 crats. Not a 

 bit of waste 

 water but the 

 rushes con- 

 trive to throw 

 some gleam of 

 colour and re- 

 lief over it ; 

 nor do they 

 seem wholly 

 out of place on the marshy borders of lonely mountain 

 tarns and lochs, where no such high-bred plant as the 

 wild iris would or could set its foot, having, despite 

 robustness, a certain delicacy of taste which the rush 

 affects not. The water-birds love the shelter of the 

 rushes, and are often found nestling among or under 

 them. . The wild-ducks, the coots, and the dabchicks 

 are their patrons, and are never felt to be out of place 

 in their vicinity ; and efts and newts and frogs, and all 

 their confreres, are easily kept in soft association with 

 the rushes. Even on streams of some little importance, 

 where trout of a considerable weight may be found by 

 the skilful fly-fisher, there are bights and little bays 



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