The Water-ivagtail. 53 



sun ; for at the sources the aquatic grasses bend 

 over, growing thiclvly, and hide it from view. But 

 pressing these down, and parting them with the hand, 

 you ma}' trace the exact place where it rises, gently 

 oozing forth without a sound. 



Lower down, where the streamlet is stronger and 

 has worn a groove — now rushing over a floor of tiny 

 flints, now partly buoj'ed up and chafing against a 

 smooth round lump of rubble — there is a pleasant 

 murmur audible at a short distance. Still ftirther 

 from the source, wliere, grown wider, the shallow 

 water shoots swiftly over a steeper gradient, the un- 

 dulations of its surface cross each other, plaiting a 

 pattern like four strands interw^oven. The resem- 

 blance to the pattern of four rushes which the coun- 

 tr}; children delight to plait together as they wander 

 by the brooks is so close as almost to suggest the 

 derivation of the art of weaving rushes, flags, and 

 willows by the hand. The sheep grazing at will in 

 the coombe eat oflf' the herbage too closely to permit 

 of many flowers. Where the springs join and irri- 

 gate a broader strip there grows a little watercress, 

 and some brooklime, said to be poisonous and occa- 

 sionally mistaken for the cress ; a stray cuckoo flow^er 

 shows its pale lilac petals in spring, and a few bunches 

 of rushes are scattered round. They do not reach 

 any height or size ; they seem chy and sapless, to- 

 tally unlike the tall green succulent rush of the 

 meadows far below. 



A water-wagtail comes now and then ; sometimes 

 the yellow variety, whose color in the spring is so 

 bright as to cause the bird to resemble the yellow- 

 hammer at the first glance. But besides these the 



