BIRDS IN THE HIGH HALL GARDEN 



ALL March the rooks were busy in the 

 swaying elms, but it is these softer 

 evenings of April, when the first young 

 leaves are beginning to frame the finished 

 nests, and the boisterous winds of last month 

 no longer drown the babble of the tree-top 

 parliament at the still hour when farm 

 labourers are homing from the fields, that 

 the rooks peculiarly strike their own note hi 

 the country scene. There is no good reason 

 to confuse these curious and interesting fowl 

 with any other of the crow family. Collectively 

 they may be recognised by their love of fel- 

 lowship, for none are more sociable than they. 

 Individually the rook is stamped unmistak- 

 ably by the bald patch on the face, where the 

 feathers have come away round the base of 

 the beak. The most generally accepted ex- 

 planation of this disfigurement is the rook's 

 habit of thrusting its bill deep in the earth in 

 search of its daily food. This, on the face of 

 it, looks like a reasonable explanation, but 

 it should be borne in mind that not only do 

 45 



