sher; "I often meet his first cousin
down here in the pond when I'm diving. They're a low lot; a
cold-blooded set; but what can you expect from a thing whose eggs are
soft, and left to hatch themselves? Why, they are only tadpoles at
first."

"You don't say so?" said the wagtail, who had not the least idea what a
tadpole was, unless it was the pole the gardener used to pull the weeds
out of the pond with. "You don't say so?"

"O yes!" said Ogrebones; "it's a fact; I tried to eat one once, but
couldn't get on with it at all. You see, I'm an English bird, and not
French, so that I cannot manage frog."

"Of course not; I see," said the wagtail.

But the kingfisher did not stop to hear him out, for all of a sudden he
sprang up, poised himself a moment in the sunny air, and then darted
into the water, from whence he presently emerged, bearing a little
struggling fish in his great beak, and with the sparkling drops of water
running off his back, and leaving his bright glossy blue feathers all
dry, shining, and bright, as though he had only been for a flight
through the air.

"There," said Ogrebones, "I've got him this time, and not without
trying. I've missed this little chap twice over, but when once Mrs K
inside there takes him in hand, he will have no chance; for it will be
eggs and crumb, and frying-pan with him in no time."

So then old Ogrebones disappeared within his hole; Wagtail betook
himself to his nest to relate his morning's experiences to the patient
Mrs Wagtail, who, like many other friends and relatives, was busy
keeping her eggs warm; and so the pond was for the moment vacated by the
birds; but it was not alone for all that, for a pretty place was that
pond, just at the bottom of Greenlawn--a pond rich in life of all kinds;
this was where the blue-eyed forget-me-not was always peeping up at the
passers-by; there grew the yellow water-lily floating amongst its great
dark green leaves, like a golden cup offered by the water fairies for
drinking the clear crystal liquid. The white water-buttercups, too,
glistened over the shallow parts, with such crisp brown water-cresses in
between, as would have made a relish to the bread and butter of a
princess. All round the edges was a waving green fringe of reeds and
rushes--bulrushes with their brown pokery seed-vessels--plaiting rushes
with their tasselled blossoms--and reeds with graceful drooping feathery
plumes waving in the soft summer air. Down in th