BIRDS AT THEIR BEST 19 



its leafless twigs were adorned with catkins 

 resembling those of the black poplar, as long as 

 a man's little finger, of a rich dark-red or maroon 

 colom". A party of about a dozen long-tailed 

 tits were traveUing, or drifting, in their usual 

 desultory way, through the line of bushes 

 towards this point, and in due time they 

 arrived, one by one, at the bush I was watching, 

 and finding it sheltered from the wind they 

 elected to remain at that spot. For a space of 

 fifteen minutes I looked on with dehght, rejoicing 

 at the rare chance which had brought that ex- 

 quisite bird- and plant-scene before me. The long 

 deep-red pendent catkins and the httle pale 

 birdlings among them in their grey and rose- 

 coloured plumage, with long graceful tails and 

 minute round, parroty heads ; some quietly 

 perched just above the water, others moving 

 about here and there, occasionally suspending 

 themselves back downwards from the slender 

 terminal twigs — the whole mirrored below. 

 That magical effect of water and sunlight gave 

 to the scene a somewhat fairy-like, an almost 

 illusory, character. 



Such scenes live in their lovehness only for 



