40 WILD LIFE: FURRED AND FEATHERED. 



gather thickly in the old trees, where they have been nesting 

 from time immemorial. They assemble in great numbers 

 to hold noisy confabulations about the mischief and damage 

 that rude Boreas is likely to do amongst their nests, which 

 are built so high up in the swaying branches. They croak 

 and flap and caw in a great state of excitement. The new 

 nests are constructed of green pliant twigs, which are laced 

 into the forked and highest branches of the trees, so that 

 the whole affair can swing freely to and fro as the wind 

 blows. Now and again a fiercer gale than usual will blow 

 some of them out of the trees bodily, but as a rule they 

 can stand a great deal. It is too early to watch the birds 

 in their busy domesticities ; a little later on and father rook 

 will have an active time of it, for he is a most attentive 

 husband and parent ; and not only does he provide amply, 

 but he cackles pleasantly the while he feeds his mate, 

 thus surely to judge from humans and their ways in like 

 case making the morsels sweeter to the stay-at-home 

 female bird. 



Although, as I have said, windy March favours the general 

 observer, yet this is not one of the best months for the bird 

 lover, because it is the season when our winter visitors have 

 either left or are thinking of leaving us. The woodcock, 

 for instance, after having paired, will, the majority of them, 

 take flight now, in order to nest in the vast forests of 

 Scandinavia and Russia. Still, the numbers that remain 

 with us are, owing to the great increase of plantations in 

 large portions of our land especially of the fir species 

 yearly becoming greater; but few of the spring migrants 

 have as yet arrived. The exact time of the coming of 

 these latter varies, of course, in different localities, as may 

 be seen very clearly in the naturalist's calendar, which is 



