g 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.

_W_. While I was looking at him, a heron came flying over my head,
with his large flagging wings. He lit 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 carry him, and was
standing with his neck drawn in, looking 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 at some noise I made,
and flew away slowly to a wood at some distance, where he settled.

_Mr. A_. Probably his nest was there, for herons build upon the
loftiest trees they can find, and sometimes in society together like
rooks. Formerly, when these birds were valued for the amusement of
hawking, many gentlemen had their _heronries_, and a few are still
remaining.

_W_. I think they are the largest wild birds we have.

_Mr. A_. They are of a great length and spread of wing, but their
bodies are comparatively small.

_W_. I then turned homeward across the meadows, where I stopped awhile
to look at a large flock of starlings