Bird Life in a Suburban Parish 110 



marshes and damp situations, though it is l)y no means 

 restricted to reeds. In one small osier-bed (since drained) 

 I always found one pair of birds nestino-. The birds, 1 

 ha\e thought sometimes, try to delude you as to the true 

 position of their nest by great pretended anxiety when you 

 are searching in quite the wrong direction. Tliis may be 

 only fancy on my part ; but be that as it may, the nest 

 is by no means an easy one to find. 



The cock is one of our handsomest native birds. 

 Though its colours cannot compete with the brilliance of 

 the Kingfisher, yet it makes in its way quite as effective 

 a picture. In its favourite and characteristic attitude, clinging 

 to an upright stalk of reed or rush, its strongly contrasted 

 plumage shows up so well against the riverside background, 

 whether of green reeds rustling crisply in the summer's 

 breeze, which rocks the bird backwards and forwards, or 

 against the sere and yellow tints of autumn, or the cold 

 glare of freshly fallen snow. For it is a resident, and 

 does not fiy from us at the approach of winter to warmer 

 climes. The hen is not so boldly marked, and, as she 

 creeps cautiously through the tangled undergrowth to feed 

 her young, is not nearly so conspicuous. 



The Starling is a typical suburban bird, where it is 

 nearly as great a hanger-on to mankind as the common 

 Sparrow. It finds by experience that houses and buildings 

 are provided with all sorts of holes and corners, in chinmeys, 

 under tiles, and in gutter-pipes, which make very convenient 

 places for nests. Here they are really quite as safe, if not 



