IN SUMMER HEAT. 63 



The heron has visited the ponds on the uplands, 

 swarming with small carp about three inches in 

 length, well knowing that he could fill his belly, 

 without the least trouble, out of the muddy pits the 

 ponds have dwindled down to. One morning I put 

 out a kingfisher from a clump of trees a good mile 

 away from any stream ; he also had come up for 

 some of those small carp that could be captured so 

 easily. 



I have seen roach about four inches in length 

 lying on the short grass of a bare hillside, very 

 early in the morning, recently. A strange sight 

 truly to see dead fish in the short tangle ; but the 

 fly-lines of the herons are directly over the hill, 

 past the fir plantation, where the fierce sparrow- 

 hawks have kept watch and ward lately, because 

 the young wood-pigeons, now well on the wing, 

 have been bred there in great numbers this season. 

 Both old and young are in great force here. The 

 hawks are not particular so long as it is a pigeon ; 

 but the young, birds are captured with the least 

 trouble. 



I have not seen one hawk shot this season ; not 

 that there is more mercy shown them than of old, 



