240 



himself by singing too early in llie year, and is seldom 

 heard nntil February. 



Perhaps a few Rooks will be seen to inspect their 

 storm-tossed homes in the tree tops early in Januar}^ 

 but the work of renovation does not rightly begin 

 until near tlie end of the next month or even the 

 beginning of March. The Starlings visit their last 

 year's breeding places every morning soon after the 

 beginning of the year, and so also do the House 

 Sparrows. 



The males and females of the Chaffinch soon begin 

 to intermix more generally, and the cocks seem 

 already to be acquiring a more spick and span 

 appearance. Towards the end of February or the 

 beginning of March, the song of this bird is once 

 more heard, and it gradually resorts in small bands to 

 our kitchen-gardens to exact its share of the newly- 

 sown seeds (seeming to prefer those of a pungent 

 character) as, later on, it will claim its daily quota of 

 young shoots, paying for all b}^ the ceaseless destruc- 

 tion of insect pests at a still later period, or even now, 

 by feeding on various chrysalis forms. 



The Skylark sings more and more frequently ; 

 not, indeed, "at Heaven's gate," for as yet it ventures 

 to soar but a little way. The delicious nuptial song of 

 the Woodlark is heard in some districts as early as the 

 end of February, the bird often singing while perched 

 on a twig or when on the ground. 



In February, also, the Redbreast begins to pair, 

 so too the Missel Thrush, and the Moorhen ; the 

 Dipper or Water Crow is another robust species given 

 to early breeding and still earlier song, while the 

 Wren is, of course, well-known for its precocity in 

 these respects. The Dipper is known as the King- 

 fisher in some districts, and this reminds us that the 

 latter species, properly so-called, is also a verj^ early 

 breeder. 



