BIRDS IN MY GARDEN. 67 



greedy young son, who was strong enough to 

 help himself. 



As to the migration of certain birds there 

 still seems to be a good deal of doubt amongst 

 learned ornithologists ; my rooks certainly 

 do not migrate very far. I have no idea 

 whence they come or whither they go ; but 

 they are constant visitors all the year round, 

 and I have been surprised that they don't 

 build and have a real home in the tall trees 

 which surround my garden. I wish they 

 would. I should like to compare notes as to 

 the habits of these cockney rooks and those 

 country ones I used to watch half-a-century 

 ago. But my trees are poplars, and I have a 

 notion that rooks don ; t like poplars for build- 

 ing purposes : their nests would be swung 

 about too much in a strong wind. 



Starlings bother me a good deal as to their 

 comings and goings ; they seem to be here 

 to-day and gone to-morrow all the year round, 

 except, perhaps, in the spring, when they are 

 less numerous, and I suppose many of them 

 are off somewhere in the country about their 

 nest-building business at the very time I 

 want them most, to help the sparrows to eat 

 the nasty green grubs that devour the leaves 

 of my gooseberry trees. 



Sparrows, I am afraid, don't do much in 



