IV.
TUTOR.—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[1] fish, which it catches in the manner you saw. It builds in holes on the banks, and is a shy, retired[2] bird, never to be seen far from the stream it inhabits.
WILLIAM.—I must try to get another sight of him, for I never saw (S. 48, N. 2) a bird that pleased me so much. Well, I followed this little brook till it entered[3] the river, and then took[4] the path that runs along the bank. On the opposite side, I observed several little birds running along the bank, and making a piping noise[5]. They were[6] brown and white, and about as big as a snipe.
TUTOR.—I suppose they [+es+] were sand-pipers[7]; one of the numerous family of birds (S. 36, N. 7, _A_) that get their living[8] by wading among the shallows and picking up worms and insects.
WILLIAM.—There were a great many swallows, too, sporting[9] above the surface of the water, that entertained me with their motions. Sometimes[10] they dashed down into the stream[11]; sometimes they pursued one another so quickly, that the eye could scarcely follow them. In one place, where a steep sand-bank rose high above the river, I observed many of them go in and out of holes with which the bank was bored full[12].
TUTOR.—Those [+Das+] were sand-martins[13], the smallest of our species of swallows. They are of a mouse-colour above, and white beneath. They[14] 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.
WILLIAM.—A little further I saw a man in a boat, who was catching eels in an odd way[15]. He had a long pole with broad iron prongs[16] at the end; just like Neptune’s trident[17], only there were five prongs instead of three. This he pushed straight down into the mud, in the deepest parts of the river, and fetched up the eels sticking between the prongs.
TUTOR.—I know the method. It is called the spearing of eels[18].
WILLIAM.—While I was looking at him, a heron came flying over my head, with his large flagging wings. He alighted[19] at the next turn of the river, and I crept softly behind the bank to watch his motions. He had waded into the water as far as his long legs would allow him[20] and was standing there motionless with his neck drawn in, looking[21] intently on the stream. Presently he darted his long bill as quick as lightning into the water, and drew out a fish, which he swallowed. I saw him catch another in the same manner. He then took alarm[22] at some noise I made, and flew away slowly to a wood at some distance, where he settled.
[1] +von+; in — saw, +auf die von dir beobachtete Weise+.
[2] +die Einsamkeit liebend+; never — inhabits = which goes never far away (+sich entfernen+) from the stream (+Gewässer+, n.) where it has its nest.
[3] +sich ergießen+, str. v. refl.
[4] +betreten+, str. v. tr.
[5] running — noise, +am Ufer entlang hüpfen und pfeifen+.
[6] = looked; and = and were.
[7] +Strandläufer+.
[8] ‘to get one’s living’, here +sich seine Nahrung verschaffen+. Read S. 87, N. 6; among the shallows, +an den seichten Stellen+; to wade, +umher´waten+; and picking up = in order to pick up.
[9] ‘to sport’, here +sein Spiel treiben+; that = and.
[10] +bald.+
[11] = water.
[12] I — full = I observed that many of them crept into the holes that were in great number (+Menge+, f.) bored (+hinein´bohren+) into the bank, but then (+dann aber+) came out again.
[13] +Uferschwalben+.
[14] Commence this period with ‘In these holes — plunderers’; to make a nest, +ein Nest bauen+; to bring up the young, +die Jungen groß ziehen+.
[15] +auf wunderliche Weise.+
[16] +Zinke+, f.
[17] +Dreizack+, m.
[18] +das Aalstechen.+
[19] +sich auf die Erde niederlassen.+
[20] Insert the grammatical object +es+ before ‘him’.
[21] = and looked intently (+mit gespannter Aufmerksamkeit+) down upon the water (+auf ... hernieder+).
[22] to take alarm at something, +durch etwas in Furcht gesetzt werden+.
_Section 205._
THE TWO SCHOOLBOYS, OR EYES AND NO EYES.