134 LEAVES EROM THE 



say ' irreverently/ for as among barn-cloor fowls we have 

 a cock and a hen, we have, among swans, a cob and a pen. 



April 22. — A friend told me on Saturday that he had 

 seen a swallow in Kent on the 18th. I looked out to- 

 day over the water in St. James's Park, but saw none ; 

 and I was in the Regent's Park yesterday without meet- 

 ing with a single hirundo of any species. My friends, 

 the black swans, have contrived to kill another cygnet, 

 with their great splay-feet, probably, and now go about 

 with one only. Very proud of it they seem to be. By 

 the way, it appears that the Canada geese,* the ganders 

 especially, are most destructive to the nestlings of other 

 birds during the breeding season. The gander will not 

 suffer anything to live, if it can help it, in the neighbour- 

 hood of its nest. Ducklings, goslings, cygnets, all fall 

 before its violence. A pair are sitting in the Park, and 

 the gander annihilates every young bird of any other 

 species that appears on his domain, and comes within 

 his power. Great fears are now entertained for a fine 

 brood of fourteen young wild-ducks just hatched in his 

 vicinity. 



When this meets the eye of those who read such 

 trifles, nidification may be considered, with few excep- 

 tions, as being over for this year. How varied are the 

 nests, from the merest rough collection of straw and lit- 

 ter to the elegant and elaborate little domicile now be- 

 fore me : — 



Wliat nice hand. 

 With twenty years' apprenticeship to boot. 

 Will make me such another. 



It is the work of a goldfinch ; a labour of love exe- 

 cuted in secret. How carefully constructed, with what 

 an eye to the colour of surrounding objects, so that there 

 may be the least risk of discovery ! 



* Anser Canadensis j L'Oie a cravate of the French. 



