252 Wild Life in a Southern County 



them through the air, as they will hawks. As autumn 

 approaches the swallows congregate on warm afternoons 

 on church steeples ; they may be seen whirling round and 

 round in large flocks, and presently settling. I saw a 

 crow go past a steeple a short time since where there was 

 a crowd of swallows, when immediately the whole flock 

 took wing, and circled about the crow, following him for 

 some distance. He made an awkward attempt once to get 

 at some of them, but their swiftness of wing took them far 

 out of his reach. Crows make no friends ; rooks, on the 

 contrary, make many, and are often accompanied by several 

 other species of birds. A certain friendliness, too, seems 

 to exist between sparrows, chaffinches, and greenfinches, 

 which are often found together. 



Some fields are divided into two by a long line of posts 

 and rails, which in time become grey from the lichen 

 growing on the wood. The cuckoos in spring seem to like 

 resting on such rails better than the hedges ; and when 

 they are courting, two, or even three, may be sometimes 

 seen on them together. Presently they fly, and are lost 

 sight of behind the trees : but one or other is nearly sure 

 to come back to the rails again after awhile. Cuckoos 

 perch frequently, too, on those solitary upright stones 

 which here and there stand in the midst of the fields. 

 This habit of theirs is quoted by some of the old folks as 

 an additional proof that the cuckoo is only a hawk changed 

 for the time, and unable to forget his old habits, hawks 

 (and owls) perching often on poles, or anything upright 

 and detached. 



The cuckoo flies so much like the hawk, and so re- 

 sembles it, as at the first glance to be barely distinguish- 

 able ; but on watching more closely it will be seen that the 

 cuckoo flies straight and level, with a gentle fluttering of 



