COUNTRY CHARACTERS 



Often he can do a good turn to the nesters,as by setting 

 a trap to catch a hedgehog, or moving a nest under 

 which a mole has driven a tunnel where a weasel might 

 run. One point may be observed on finding a par- 

 tridge's nest, that the birds have chosen a pitch, it seems 

 deliberately, with a screen of guardian brambles between 

 the nest and the footpath way. 



THE pretty siskins are now deserted by their Winter 

 companions, goldfinches and lesser red- 

 The polls, and make an early start in building 



Siskins' their snug nests in the fir- woods, nests of 

 Song-flight moss, wool, horsehair, and feathers, of 

 interest to the squirrel and the jay, who 

 have a shrewd eye for the bullfinch-like eggs. The 

 restless little cock, as bright as a canary, has a hurried 

 and most pleasing song, into which all kinds of familiar 

 notes may be introduced. He often utters this delightful 

 miscellany on the wing, much in the manner of a pipit. 

 But, unlike the pipit, he will sing his song through two 

 or three times during one flight, as if he cannot do 

 enough to cheer his sitting mate. 



COUNTRY CHARACTERS 



A NEW arrangement of our birds might be made, 



according to their dispositions, whether 



The solitary, social, wary, bold, joyous or 



Feathered joyless. Does any bird stand for more pro- 



Mouse found melancholy than the heron? The 



buzzard, sulking on a stone hedge in 



Cornwall, is well compared to the hunchbacked King 



Richard, sullen on his throne. One bird would need a 



55 



