BRITISH FERTILITY 191 



owls, weasels, etc., and from violent storms and 

 tempests, — and one can quickly see why the Brit- 

 ish birds so thrive and abound. There is a chaf- 

 finch for every tree, and a rook and a starling for 

 every square rod of ground. I think there would 

 be still more starlings if they could find places to 

 build, but every available spot is occupied; every 

 hole in a wall, or tower, or tree, or stump ; every 

 niche about the farm buildings; every throat of the 

 grinning gargoyles about the old churches and cathe- 

 drals; every cranny in towers and steeples and cas- 

 tle parapet, and the mouth of every rain-spout and 

 gutter in which they can find a lodgment. 



The ruins of the old castles afford a harbor to 

 many species, the most noticeable of which are spar- 

 rows, starlings, doves, and swallows. Rochester 

 Castle, the main tower or citadel of which is yet in 

 a good state of preservation, is one vast dove-cote. 

 The woman in charge told me there were then about 

 six hundred doves there. They whitened the air 

 as they flew and circled about. From time to time 

 they are killed off and sent to market. At sun- 

 down, after the doves had gone to roost, the swifts 

 appeared, seeking out their crannies. For a few 

 moments the air was dark with them. 



Look also at the rooks. They follow the plowmen 

 like chickens, picking up the grubs and worms; 

 and chickens they are, sable farm fowls of a wider 

 range. Young rooks are esteemed a great delicacy. 

 The four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie, and 

 set before the king, of the nursery rhyme, were 



