238 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
formed of nooks—deep indentations, so to say—not 
more than six or eight yards wide at the entrance, 
and running up toa point. Of these there are four 
or five—recesses in the massive walls of green. 
These corners are caused by the mound following 
the curiously winding course of a brook which flows 
just without on the left side; and without, on the 
right side, runs a second brook, whose direction is 
much straighter and current slower. These two meet 
at the top of the mead, and then, forming a junction, 
make a deep, swift stream, flowing beside a series of 
water meadows—broad, level, and open, like a plain 
—which are irrigated from it. The mounds in the 
angle where the brooks join enclose a large space 
planted with osiers, and inside the hedges all round 
the mead there is a wide, deep ditch, always full of 
slowly moving water: so that the field is really 
surrounded by a double moat; and in one corner, in 
addition, there is a pond hidden by maple thickets 
from within, and intended for the use of cattle in 
the adjoining field. The nearest house is several 
meadows distant, and no footpath Passes near, so 
that the spot is peculiarly quiet. These mounds, 
hedges, osier-bed, and brooks, occupy an area nearly 
or quite equal to the space where cattle can feed. 
Upon the fir tree a heron perches frequently in 
the daytime, because from that great elevation he can 
command an extensive view and feels secure against 
attack. Whenever he visits the water meadows, 
