Life of the Stream The leaves of trees, the growing
reeds and grasses make such a cover for the bank of the stream that in summer it is often hard to detect the birds and animals that live along the watercourse. While 1 was by the water at the week-end, I heard the moorhen a score of times, and put several pairs to flight. At midsummer they would have remained hidden in the overhanging foliage, but now, being able to see me, even when I did not know exactly where they were, they wont hurrying off upstream to new cover that, as I overtook them, again proved inadequate for their comfort. It is not so easy to see the otter, and much more d:fficult to see the shrew, for the shrew's passage across is shadowy. The dipper is quite careless. He sits bobbing on the stones, and then sweeps in and out among the larger rocks with a speed that makes one feel that he is certain to come to grief. When he has a mind to, he avoids overhanging branches by taking to the water, for he is as much at home on it or in it as he is in the air. His food consists mainly of insect-life, but there was a grand feast for a hungry predator in a shoal of minnows that crowded one small pool. They almost threw themselves out of the water when my shadow fell across them.
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