54 A LONG SY DAY \Witit THE, BIRDS 
hoot of steam sirens, muffled by distance, as 
the great ocean-going steamers carefully make 
out their way down stream, for the horizon 
looms quite hazy to-day—a by no means 
uncommon occurrence here, however. And 
behind all to the -south rise the fair hills of 
Kent, whither we are bound. The river 
crossed we are fairly in the country, as was 
evidenced by the carefully kept golf links 
close by. The flats that we had traversed 
were birdless save for a few rooks, carrion 
crows and starlings that had quitted their 
nests far away to get food for themselves and 
their ever-hungry young families. But here 
feathered hfe was much more abundant. 
The first birds that attracted our attention 
and astonished us by their unwonted appear- 
ance, and that they were there at all, was a 
company of a dozen or so of the hooded or 
erey-backed crows. They are larger and 
broader than rooks, or even carrion crows, 
and clumsier in their ways and heavier in 
flight. We at once distinguished them by 
their grey backs (from which they get their 
