6 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



alligator plunges into the dismal pool. The air is 

 pregnant with pestilence, but alive with mosquitos 

 and other insects. The croaking of the frogs, 

 joined with the hoarse cries of the auhingas, and 

 the screams of the herons, form fit music for such 

 a scene. "* In such a spot, where the foot of man 

 seldom falls, and where the tumult of the life of 

 nature is most abundantly heard, the heron places 

 on the tall trees her large flat nest. A very dif- 

 ferent situation is selected by the rook. This 

 bird, far from avoiding, appears even to court 

 human society. No place is more suitable than 

 the neighbourhood of an old family mansion, deep 

 embowered in the woods. Not a hundred yards 

 from the outer offices, where a grove of tall forest- 

 trees shoot up into the sky, casting its broad 

 shadows over the coppice below, the rookery will 

 be placed. 



Many birds, however, having less exalted no- 

 tions, select humbler trees for the situation of their 

 nests. For a number of illustrations in point we 

 have only in early spring to take a walk through 

 the orchard, or along the skirt of the wood. It 

 will not be long before we detect the objects of 



* Audubon : Ornithological Biography. 



