DESERTED HOMES. 159 



Sometimes in pike-fishing weather, when a few 

 sharp frosts have followed each other — not enough 

 to cover up the open water, but just enough to make 

 firm the tangle where the reeds grow — you may see 

 the nest sufficiently for all purposes of observation ; 

 and as a specimen, it looks still as perfect as when 

 the clever little builder first finished it to lay her eggs 

 and bring up her brood in. 



Just one word of warning to those who wade 

 through weed-beds, pike-fishing : keep your eyes 

 open and your feet moving; for of all the un- 

 pleasant things I am acquainted with, the very 

 worst is to have a lot of reeds and tangle give way 

 with you and shoot you into ice-cold water, six, and 

 it may be ten, feet in depth. Such accidents will 

 occur at times, let you be as careful as you may. I 

 have experienced this sort of thing more than once 

 in mid-winter, and so speak feelingly. 



I was deputed once, with another choice spirit of 

 my boyhood's days, to ruin the happy home of some 

 missel-thrushes that had young, in a choice pear-tree 

 belonging to one of my relations ; for we had per- 

 suaded him that we could do the job better than any 

 one else in or about that large orchard. The owner 



