W. From the hill I went straight down to the meadows below, and walked on the side of a brook that runs into the river.  It was all bordered with reeds and flags and tall flowering plants, quite different from those I had seen on the heath.  As I was getting down the bank to reach one of them, I heard something plunge into the water near me.  It was a large water-rat, and I saw it swim over to the other side, and go into its hole.  There were a great many large dragon-flies all about the stream.  I caught one of the finest, and have got him here in a leaf.  But how I longed to catch a bird that I saw hovering over the water, and every now and then darting down into it!  It was all over a mixture of the most beautiful green and blue, with some orange color.  It was somewhat less than a thrush, and had a large head and bill, and a short tail.

Mr. A. I can tell you what that bird was—­a kingfisher, the celebrated halcyon of the ancients, about which so many tales are told.  It lives on fish, which it catches in the manner you saw.  It builds in holes in the banks, and is a shy, retired bird, never to be seen far from the stream where it inhabits.

W.  I must try to get another sight at him, for I never saw a bird that pleased me so much.  Well—­I followed this little brook till it entered the river, and then took the path that runs along the bank.  On the opposite side I observed several little birds running along the shore, and making a piping noise.  They were brown and white, and about as big as a snipe.

Mr. A.  I suppose they were sandpipers, one of the numerous family of birds that get their living by wading among the shallows, and picking up worms and insects.

W.  There were a great many swallows, too, sporting upon the surface of the water, that entertained me with their motions.  Sometimes they dashed into the stream; sometimes they pursued one another so quick, that the eye could scarcely follow them.  In one place where a high steep sand-bank rose directly above the river, I observed many of them go in and out of holes with which the bank was bored full.

Mr. A.  Those were sand-martins, the smallest of our species of swallows.  They are of a mouse color above, and white beneath.  They make their nests and bring up their young in these holes, which run a great depth, and by their situation are secure from all plunderers.

W.  A little farther I saw a man in a boat, who was catching eels in an odd way.  He had a long pole with broad iron prongs at the end, just like Neptune’s trident, only there were five instead of three.  This he pulled straight down among the mud in the deepest parts of the river, and fetched up the eels sticking between the prongs.

Mr. A.  I have seen this method.  It is called spearing of eels.