100 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



parent birds and their young, lately out of the nest, 

 brought to the oaks to be fed on caterpillars. It may 

 be that their food is more abundant at certain points, 

 but it is also probable that their social disposition 

 causes them to congregate. Walking in the silent 

 woods you begin to hear them at a considerable dis- 

 tance ahead a great variety of sounds, mostly of that 

 shrill, sharp, penetrative character which is common 

 to many young passerine birds when calling to be fed. 

 The birds will sometimes be found distributed over an 

 acre of ground, a family or two occupying every large 

 oak tree tits, finches, warblers, the tree-creeper, nut- 

 hatch, and the jay. What, one asks, is the jay doing 

 in such company? He is feeding at the same table, 

 and certainly not on them. All, jays included, are 

 occupied with the same business, minutely examining 

 ^each cluster of leaves, picking off every green cater - 

 pxllat; aod extracting the chrysalids from every rolled- 

 !np ,!e$f. JTfce airy little leaf warblers and the tits do 

 this ve'ry deftly; the heavier birds are obliged to 

 advance with caution along the twig until by stretching 

 the neck they can reach their prey lurking in the green 

 cluster, and thrust their beaks into each little green 

 web-fastened cylinder. But all are doing the same 

 thing in pretty much the same way. While the old 

 birds are gathering food, the young, sitting in branches 

 close by, are incessantly clamouring to be fed, their 

 various calls making a tempest of shrill and querulous 

 sounds in the wood. And the shrillest of all are the 



