118 A TOUE ROUND MY GARDEN. 



of a velvety white. The Eomans made bucklers of the wood 

 of this tree, on account of its lightness, and covered them with 

 ox-hides. Of this tree Pliny says, popwlus apfa scutis. In 

 certain northern countries, it is said that a white poplar, in 

 good soil, increases a shiUing in value every year. They are 

 generally cut down at the age of twenty years, as they are 

 then supposed to have attained their full growth. This cir- 

 cumstance has given birth to a very interesting custom. When 

 a daughter is born in the family of a respectable farmer, the 

 father, as soon as the season will permit, plants a thousand 

 young Yprlaux,* which are to constitute the dowry of the 

 maiden, which grow as she grows, increasing in height and 

 value as her virtues and beauty increase. 



In the stem of the poplar is concealed a nest, the exterior 

 of which is formed of moss and slender roots, and the interior 

 delicately lined with hair and feathers. In it four or five white 

 eggs, striped and spotted with brown, are carefully sat upon 

 by a water- wagtail. Whilst the male bird is in search of game, 

 we may see him walking along the bank of the rivulet, grace- 

 fully balancing his long tail, of ten black and two white 

 feathers, the latter forming the edge or border; the top of 

 his head and the under part of his neck are black j he wears a 

 kind of white half-mask; the rest of his body is clothed in 

 clouded grey and pearl grey. You may go close to him j if he 

 flies away, it is only to return almost immediately; but it is 

 more than probable he will only walk away, without disturb- 

 ing his lively and graceful carriage. His purpose is to catch 

 on the wing all sorts of flies, gnats, and tipul8e,t which have, 

 as I have no doubt we shall soon discover, excellent reasons 

 for flitting about over the surface of rivulets. The little 

 female so sedulously employed at home, only diifers from her 

 mate in having a brown head, and in not wearing a plastron 

 above the neck. 



Nearer the water are large tufts of Iris of difierent sorts, 

 shooting forth, from the bosom of their pointed leaves, stalks 

 loaded with blossoms. Some are yellow; others violet; these 

 entirely white, or white with a blue fringe ; those yellow and 

 brown; others yellow and blue; and a few pale blue. 



* A sort of broad-leafed elm, apparently peculiar to the neighbourhood of Ypres. 

 t A kind of gnat. 



