LOCH CRERAN. 



side then on the other, nipping an occasional insect in 

 its passage. Jenny has scarcely left when Cock Robin 

 takes her place, his bosom no longer aglow with the 

 passions of the spring, but with sober breast, as he thinks 

 of the troubles of paternity. He lands on the fence full 

 face to the window, then hopping up turns round with 

 his back to view, performing this simple piece of gym- 

 nastics again and again, as he passes the sweet pea region, 

 now diving at a fly or a gnat, but always with a bright 

 eye fixed upon the window. Chaffinch after chaffinch 

 comes, for they are legion, and the way they cling to the 

 swaying heads of oats, and strip the grains therefrom, is 

 most interesting to the onlooker across the little fence, i 

 although scarcely so amusing to the farmer. The gay \ 

 wing seems to flash as it comes and goes, for although so 

 extremely common and familiar, it is much more 

 suspicious and restless than our next visitor, Mr. Sparrow, 

 who feels really at home, his nest being among the ivy 

 overhead, and who simply rests his well-filled corporation 

 in a quiet, sedate, self-satisfied manner, as he contemplates 

 the ripening grain, upon which he has been levying black- 

 mail these weeks past, to his great comfort and consola- 

 tion. He actually looks in with an expression Uf 

 curiosity, seems to take a sniff at the sweet peas, turns 

 lazily round his back to the window without hopping, 

 and without the constant backward glance of the bright 

 eye, as in the case of the redbreast ! and then with 

 confidence in human magnanimity, and consciousness of 

 special immunity from the ordinary cares of bird life, 

 ruffles his feathers, and settles himself down to an after- 

 dinner dose on the fence. Bang comes a bigger fellow, 

 as if he were thrown at the fence from a distance, and 

 stares in stupidly for a moment, like a country bumpkin, 



