DOUBTFUL CHARACTERS 129 



alarmed just before they are quite ready to 

 fly. You may have quite accidentally forced 

 your way through or into the bush where the. 

 nest is, and then what a racket besets your 

 ears all at once ! The old birds are round you, 

 scolding their loudest ; then they are in and 

 about the nest, helping the young ones out of 

 it. After that all is quiet, for the lot has 

 slipped away for a time. Presently, if you 

 keep quite still, you will hear close to you 



a very contented " chack chack chack." 



Not only do I like the bird for his own sake, 

 but also for the pleasing pictures with which he 

 has been for years so intimately associated, 

 pictures where old farms stand just off the 

 lonely country roads, with their slips of orchards 

 in front of them, looking like what they really 

 are, genuine remnants of the past. There, 

 on the gnarled and twisted limbs, bowed 

 down by sheer old age, so that for some part 

 of their length they lie hidden in the grass, 

 you may see the red-backed shrike and his 

 mate sitting and watching the grass beneath 

 them for their prey. 



A wide, open common, tenanted by rough 

 ponies and their colts, with the scattered sheep 

 in no better case ; and, just to break the mono- 



