Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
almost black. I remember seeing a completely black 
squirrel once in a cage at Biarritz. I do not know if they 
are common in that part of France. Boy asked Gardener 
to catch him a squirrel for a pet, but Gardener said they 
were not nice as house pets, and I told Boy I was sure 
Master Squggie would prefer a wild life. 
We were asked a few days ago if we had heard the chiff- 
chaff yet. He is supposed to come earlier to these woods 
than anywhere else in the neighbourhood, and is, I believe, 
rare in Berwickshire. I must look out for the tiny green 
gentleman. I have not yet seen any kingfishers on our 
little river, though I know they have been seen on the 
Tweed — the King’s Fisher, as he used to be called, the 
“ sea-blue bird of Spring.” I heard a most extraordinary 
story the other day, how an angler left his rod hanging 
over the water, fixed by the handle to a tree-bough, and 
came back to find a kingfisher on the hook ! A majestic 
grey heron (“ herne ” they call it on the English side of the 
Border) was on the haugh by the water yesterday, after- 
wards winging his way in the direction of the Castle Loch, 
or Hen Poo’ (Pool) as it is commonly called. There he 
will have the aristocratic society of swans and a variety of 
ducks. A white heron was seen one day on the Tweed. 
What a beauty he must have been ! I think swans must be 
very clever birds. A pair from this very loch were once 
located on a pond in the close proximity of the Tweed, 
but not within sight of that river. They were fed at 
intervals, and apparently had plenty of water weeds, &c. 
But remain they would not. Being pinioned, they had no 
means of locomotion except their feet, and, in spite of con- 
stant watching on the part of the gamekeeper and his 
family, it was a common cry, “ The Swans are away to the 
Tweed ! ” In order to leave the pond they did not follow 
the burn down to the river, but took a direct line across a 
field to the Tweed, which river, though not far distant, was 
completely hidden from view by a steep ridge. 
Fearing they would stray and be lost, they were removed 
to two larger ponds farther inland, close to each other. 
38 
