WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 283 



As the black multitude floats past overhead with 

 deliberate, easy flight, their trumpeters and buglemen, 

 the jackdaws two or three to every company utter 

 their curious chuckle ; for the jackdaw is a bird which 

 could not keep silence to save his life, but must talk 

 after his fashion, while his grave, solemn companions 

 move slowly onwards, rarely deigning to " caw " him 

 a reply. But away yonder at the wood, above the 

 great beech trees, where so vast a congregation is 

 gathered together, there is a mighty uproar and com- 

 motion a seething and bubbling of the crowds, now 

 settling on the branches, now rising in sable clouds, 

 each calling to the other with all his might, the whole 

 population delivering its opinions at once. 



It is an assemblage of a hundred republics. We 

 know how free states indulge in speech with their 

 parliaments and congresses and senates, their public 

 meetings, and so forth: here are a hundred such 

 nations, all with perfect liberty of tongue, holding 

 forth unsparingly, and in a language which consists 

 of two or three syllables indefinitely repeated. The 

 din is wonderful each republic as its forces arrive 

 adding to the noise, and for a long time unable to 

 settle upon their trees, but feeling compelled to wheel 

 around and discourse. In spring each tribe has its 

 special district, its own canton and city, in its own 

 trees away in the meadows. Later on they all meet 

 here in the evening. It is a full hour or more before 

 the orations have all been delivered, and even then 

 small bands rush up into the air still dissatisfied. 



