The Birds Bathing-Place. 313 



CHAPTER XIX. 



COUKSE OF THE BROOK THE BIRDS' BATHING PLACE 



ROACH JACK ON THEIR JOURNEYS — THE STICKLE- 

 BACK'S NEST WOODCOCK THE LAKE HERONS 



MUSSELS REIGN OF TERROR IN THE LAKE. 



A PLACE where the bank of the brook has been dug 

 away so as to form a sloping approach to the water 

 in order that cattle may drink without difficulty is 

 much visited by birds in summer. Some cartloads of 

 small stones originall}' thrown down to make a firm 

 floor to the drinking-place have in process of time 

 become worn into sand, which the rain has washed 

 into the water. This has helped to form a more 

 than usually sandy bottom to the water just there. 

 Then a bank of mud, or little eyot in the centre of 

 the stream, thickly overgTown with flags, divides the 

 current in two, and the swiftest section passes b\' the 

 drinking-place and brings with it more sand washed 

 out from the mud ; so that just at the edge there is 

 a floor of fine sand covered with water, which six 

 inches from shore is hardly an inch deep. This is 

 just the bathing-place in which birds delight, and 

 here they come, accordingly, all the summer through, 

 day after da3^ 



Sparrows, starlings, finches (including the beauti- 

 ful goldfinches) , blackbirds, and so on, are constantly 



