246 



An English Stream. 



long wings go to hide it, or make it appear even less 

 prominent than it really is. Do you want a sight of 

 him ? Then be wary. Stand here silent, and look 

 through this low-hanging sycamore branch. See ! he 

 sits still as a bit of the branch on which he has perched, 

 and which overhangs the water. Look, look ! suddenly 

 he descends, as in arc of a circle, dives ; he has 

 found his prey — a small fish, and is off with it in his 

 beak to feed his- young ones, which are very care- 

 fully sheltered in a hole in the bank there — the very 



strangest of all our native birds' nests. It is formed 

 merely of the bones of the fishes which he has eaten, 

 and which he disgorges, lays them on a shelf he has 

 formed at the end of his hole, with a depression in 

 it, the larger bones below, the smaller bones, as of 

 minnows, above, and he contrives to glue these little 

 bones slightly together by some of the saliva or natural 

 cement which many birds, swallows and others, secrete 

 and use, and which finds its highest and fullest use, 

 as regards nest-building, at all events, in the case of 



