174 Rooks. 



the bat uttered as it flies : the same is said of the 

 shrew mouse, whose cry is yet more faint and acute. 

 The swift, too, has a peculiar kind of screech, but 

 easily heard. 



Beyond the stables are the cattle-sheds and cow- 

 yards. These sheds are open on the side towards 

 the yard, supported there by a row of wooden pillars 

 stepped on stones to keep them from rotting. On 

 the large cross-beams within the swallows make their 

 nests. When the eggs are hard set, the bird will sit 

 so close that with care and a gentle manner of ap- 

 proach you may sometimes even stroke her back 

 lightly with your finger without making her rise. 

 They become so accustomed to men constantly in 

 and out the sheds as to feel little alarm. Some build 

 their nests higher up under the roof-tree. 



To the adjoining rickyard redstarts come every 

 summer, building their nests there ; ' horse-matchers ' 

 or stonechats also in summer often visit the rickyard, 

 though they do not build in it. Some elm trees 

 shade the ricks, and once now and then a wood- 

 pigeon settles in them for a little while. The coo of 

 the dove may be heard frequently, but she does not 

 build very near the house. 



On this farm the rookery is at some distance in 

 the meadows, and the rooks rarely come nearer than 

 the field just outside the post and rails that enclose 

 the rickyard, though they pass over constant!}', fly- 

 ing low down without fear, unless some one chances 

 just then to come out carrying a gun. Then they 

 seem seized with an uncontrollable panic, and stop 

 short in their career by a violent effort of the wings, 

 to wheel off immediately at a tangent. Perhaps no 



