THE SPRING FEVER 



now the nest-trees hold a stronger attraction for all in 

 the colony. 



THE rookery is an uproarious place to-day, and the 

 wood rings with wild cawing as the birds 

 At the swoop madly about the tree-tops, in a 

 Rookery veritable spring fever, nest-building being 

 the new order of the day. With frantic 

 eagerness the rooks prune the old elms, their strong 

 bills ruthlessly tearing twigs from the living tree. Bird 

 after bird drops down upon the old nests to weave the 

 fresh twigs in place. The work goes on through weeks, 

 though experienced builders will have the walls of their 

 nest put up in a couple of days. The business-like way 

 some birds set about putting an old nest to rights and 

 lining it with grass suggests they are old hands. And 

 it may be observed that the experienced builders are 

 not robbed like the neophytes, whose 'prentice nests 

 are so often raided and destroyed by the fathers of the 

 colony. 



NESTING days have come again for Jack Hern, a 

 strange bird, with his long neck and legs, 

 At the to make a home in trees. There is always 

 Heronry something incongruous in the sight of 

 herons standing on tree-tops above their 

 nests, like guardian angels, or statues of cranes in 

 Japanese gardens. A setting sun flushes their grey 

 forms, and their beaks shine like gold daggers. The 

 heron's love of trees is shown by the way he will perch 

 on one, for a spell of silent meditation, before beginning 

 his evening's fishing. The young haunt the nest-trees 

 the summer through, incessantly clamouring to be fed, 



23 



