AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



SOME naturalists have held that the provincial names of 

 birds should be discarded from serious 

 The works; this was the view of Knox, the 



Galley- Sussex ornithologist, though he seems to 

 bird have approved of " barley-bird " for the 



yellow- wagtail which comes at seed-time, 

 of " rinding-bird " for the wryneck, as it comes when 

 oaks are stripped, of " parson-gull " and " duck- 

 hawk," and of " yaffle " for the woodpecker. A happier 

 provincial name for this bird is still to be heard in 

 Kent galley-bird. This must be an ancient name if 

 it comes from the Anglo-Saxon " gal," merry, in 

 reference to the laughing note that forebodes rain. 



To hear in the woods to-day a wild screech from a jay, 

 and then to hear the wild laughing cry of 

 Jay and the green woodpecker, is to receive two 

 Yaffle strongly contrasting impressions. In the 



early-Spring concerts of the jay a sociable 

 bird when courting there is a wonderful variety of 

 suggestive notes ; like a mocking bird he can neigh and 

 he can bleat, and like the little owl he can produce 

 sounds that might come from dog or cat. His harsh 

 scream leaves a suggestion on the mind of a bird whose 

 days are full of anxiety. But the yaffle's call is one of 

 the happiest in Nature. 



TREE-LOVING birds often have their favourite trees; 



thus, the willow- wren seems on its natural 

 The stage when spilling its silvery chimes from 



Starling's the shining leaves of a riverside willow- 

 Tree tree. The starling is famed as a bird at 



home everywhere; perhaps no bird is 

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