STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 105 



got any place where we can build our nests, 

 and raise up our families. The world owes us 

 a living. Those rooks over there, in that 

 grove across the brook, have got a great deal 

 more land than they know what to do with. 

 Besides they are not half civilized, and are not 

 of much account any way. The boundary 

 between the country of the rooks and the 

 herons has never been very well defined. It 

 is said that a great part of that grove used to 

 belong to us, and that it was taken from us 

 by fraud, a great many years back. We have 

 a better right to a part of that grove than they 

 have, and quite as good a right, for aught that 

 we can see, to the whole of it. Suppose we go 

 and fight for a part of the grove ?" The more 

 this proposal was talked over, the better it was 

 liked by the council. So war was declared. 

 The two armies fought very hard. A great 

 many herons were killed, and a great many 

 rooks, too. But at last, peace was declared. 

 The terms of the agreement between the two 

 parties were that the rooks should take one 

 part of the grove, and the herons the other. 

 At the last accounts, the two nations were 

 on the best of terms. They seemed to have 

 forgotten their old difiiculties altogether. 



A Caernarvon (Wales) paper, relates the 



