AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



Rook a heron which may drift over their hunting- 



Feuds grounds. Several rooks will make after the 



heron with a great turn of speed, easily 

 overtaking their majestic quarry, flying above, below, 

 and ahead, not attacking, but persistently herding him 

 away. The feud between them seems almost traditional. 

 Should a heron pass over a rookery, he will be attacked 

 even more furiously, then may cry in alarm, lose his 

 calm dignity, and throw himself into pitiful attitudes 

 of distress. Rooks have been known to expel herons 

 from their heronry ; but the victory does not always go 

 to the sable brotherhood. 



BIRDS OF PASSAGE 



IN Autumn we may have the good fortune to see rare 

 birds on migration, birds unknown in our 

 A Bird own countryside. There may come to a 

 Simpleton valley of the South Downs a small flock, 

 or trip, of those handsome and confiding 

 little plovers, the dotterels, who chose to linger on the 

 hills, their last barrier before the sea, on their way to 

 the far south from the far north. To their unwariness 

 they owe their name, from the word to dote to be fond 

 and simple and their scientific name, " morinellus," 

 signifies a little dotard. The simpleton bird has paid 

 dearly for his foolishness in allowing man to net and 

 shoot him with ease, to make what our forefathers called 

 " a daintie dish," and to make trout-fishing flies of his 

 feathers. 



Now the last broods of the house-martins fly from the 



nests beneath our cottage eaves. For more than five 



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