Christmas Eve in a Punt. 223 



can assure you, Thornbury, these lakes are visited by tens of 

 thousands of birds in a night." 



A man must be flinty, I take it, if he could witness such 

 enthusiasm as that of Harvey Kype without sidling gradually 

 within its influence. Facing him as Thornbury did he 

 could see his honest eyes beaming at the thought of the 

 feathered hosts that journeyed to those parts when hard times 

 drove them to a great winter invasion. Most likely the 

 B.A.'s honest eye beamed too; he certainly listened with 

 pleasurable content (the pike being beneath the thwarts), 

 while he pulled softly into a small creek that penetrated the 

 reedy barrier. 



" Hush a moment," commanded Harvey. 



And he hushed. They were now in one of those clear 

 lanes of deep water by which this singular series of lakes is 

 connected for miles at a stretch, and the watery pathway 

 was so narrow, and the reeds so high, that the men were 

 very effectually concealed! 



After a pause Harvey smiled, and placed the gun ready to 

 hand. He had often astonished his friends by a mysterious 

 gift enabling him to understand the language of birds. 

 What to them was an unintelligible noise, was to him infor- 

 mation, music. The cry of a bird revealed to him some- 

 thing more than its species — it sometimes warned him of its 

 intentions, and told him its feelings and aspirations. So 

 now — 



" Ducks," he said ; "and they are just settling between 

 themselves whether they shall go into the next broad, or 

 betake themselves to the Mill Marsh at the other end of 

 this. Ah ! they've heard us. The old woman has ceased 

 her loud talk, and there isn't a cackle amongst a hundred of 

 them now." 



It was not a wild duck, however, that would detain 



