AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



A TURTLE-DOVE sitting on an apology of a nest, a 

 scanty platform of twigs, is a common 

 The Dove's hedgerow picture of these days : as the 

 Nest dove's soft crooning (a sound well suggested 



by the scientific name, " turtur ") is typical 

 of a dreamy midsummer afternoon. The nest never 

 fails to arouse wonder, having so few twigs that the 

 small white eggs are clearly visible from below. One 

 can only suppose that the flat, rough, draughty platform 

 must be an uncomfortable place whereon to sit on 

 hatching duty for a fortnight. A turtle which elected to 

 lay in a rook's old nest seemed to be endowed with an 

 unusual sense of comfort. 



YOUNG THINGS 



THE rearing-field, where the young pheasants are 

 learning their first life-lessons, is always a 

 The favourite haunt of wild birds, the pheasant 



Pheasants' chicks' unbidden guests, sharing the sump- 

 Guests tuous meals provided four times daily by 

 their keeper. The keeper rather likes to see 

 robins, thrushes, starlings, and other birds, if not 

 rapacious, about the coops, as they clear up surplus 

 food, which might turn sour. The fowls, acting as 

 foster-mothers to the pheasants, are marvellously 

 vigilant; their heads seem to come through the bars 

 of the coops the moment the shadow of a hawk crosses 

 the field, and the little pheasants are as marvellously 

 obedient to the orders to take cover. 



THE young of shy birds, like jays, are often engagingly 

 tame on first exploring the world, their confidence 



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