NATURE ON THE ROOF 



INCREASED activity on the housetop marks the 

 approach of spring and summer exactly as in the 

 woods and hedges, for the roof has its migrants, its 

 semi-migrants, and its residents. When the first 

 dandelion is opening on a sheltered bank, and the 

 pale-blue field veronica flowers in the waste corner, 

 the whistle of the starling comes from his favourite 

 ledge. Day by day it is heard more and more, till, 

 when the first green spray appears on the hawthorn, 

 he visits the roof continually. Besides the roof-tree 

 and the chimney-pot, he has his own special place, 

 sometimes under an eave, sometimes between two 

 gables ; and as I sit writing, I can see a pair who have 

 a ledge which slightly projects from the wall between 

 the eaves and the highest window. This was made by 

 the builder for an ornament; but my two starlings 

 consider it their own particular possession. They 

 alight with a sort of half -scream half-whistle just 

 over the window, flap their wings, and whistle again, 

 run along the ledge to a spot where there is a gable, 

 and with another note, rise up and enter an aperture 

 between the slates and the wall. There their nest 

 will be in a little time, and busy indeed they will be 

 when the young require to be fed, to and fro the fields 

 and the gable the whole day through ; the busiest and 

 the most useful of birds, for they destroy thousands 

 upon thousands of insects, and if farmers were wise 

 they would never have one shot, no matter how the 

 thatch was pulled about. 



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