302 Wild Life in a Southern County 



CHAPTER XX. 



WILDFOWL OP THE LAKE — SEA BIBDS — DBIFT WOOD — FOECES 01 

 NATT7BE AT WOBK — WAVES — EVAPOBATION — AN EAGLE — FE08T AND 

 SNOW — EFFECT ON BIRDS AND ANIMALS WATEB-MEADOWS — SHOOT- 

 ING STABS — PHOSPHOEESCENCE— WATBBSPOUT — NOISES 'IN THE AIE.' 



The ' summer snipe,' or sandpiper, cornea to the lake 

 regularly year after year, and remains during the warm 

 months. About a dozen visit the shallow sandy reaches 

 running along the edge of the water, when disturbed 

 flying off just above the surface with a plaintive piping 

 cry. They describe a semi-circle, and come back to the 

 shore a hundred yards farther on; and will do this as 

 many times as you like to put them up. Sometimes they 

 feed in little parties of two or three : sometimes alone. 

 No other place for some distance is visited by the sand- 

 piper : none of the ponds or brooks ; only the lake. 



In summer but a few species of birds remain on this 

 piece of water. Only two or three wild ducks stay to 

 breed : their nests are not found on the mere itself, but in 

 the ponds adjacent. One small pond fed by the lake and 

 communicating with it — dug where the muddy shore would 

 otherwise prevent cattle approaching the shallow water — 

 a quiet spot almost surrounded by bushes, is a favourite 

 nesting-place. The brooks that run in are occasionally 

 used by ducks in the same way, and one of the large 

 ditches which is full of flags and rushes and well sheltered 



