20 
BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
kill an owl — a sight that made me gasp with 
astonishment. But I am inclined to think of this 
act as only a slip, a slight aberration, on the part 
of the falcon, so universal is the sense of relation- 
ship among the kinds that have the rapacious 
habit ; or, at the w^orst, it was merely an isolated 
act of devilry and daring of the sharp-winged 
pirate of the sky, a sudden assertion of over- 
mastering energy and power, and a very slight 
offence compared with that of the crow when he 
carries off and devours his callow little cousins of 
the rookery. 
One of the first birds I went out to seek — per- 
haps the most medicinal of all birds to see — was 
the kingfisher ; but he was not anywhere on the 
river margin, although suitable places were plentiful 
enough, and myriads of small fishes were visible in 
the shallow water, seen at rest like dim-pointed 
stripes beneath the surface, and darting away and 
scattering outwards like a flight of arrows at any 
person's approach. Walking along the river bank 
one day, when the place was still new to me, I 
discovered a stream, and following it up, arrived at 
a spot where a clump of trees overhung the water, 
casting on it a deep shade. On the other side of 
the stream buttercups grew so thickly that the 
glazed petals of the flowers were touching ; the 
