Salmon Fishing. 87 



That the gulls talked in this fashion, few of 

 my readers, I fancy, are gullible enough to credit. 

 Still that they, and other birds too have their own 

 peculiar language, I feel confident from evidence 

 which, though it would hardly suit a court of 

 law, would be quite sufficient for a reasonable 

 naturalist. 



See that sage-looking rook who seems so 

 jolly, when he sits swayed to and fro on the 

 leafy branch in a breezy day ; while some 

 way off his friends are busily feeding. He caws 

 away every now and then, as if holding converse 

 with himself, like solitary human beings are 

 wont to do ; the other members of the flock 

 apparently taking not the smallest notice of 

 what he says. But only draw a bit nearer 

 to the latter, and see how the watchman swells 

 his throat, and rattles out his warning, which 

 instantaneously affects the black brotherhood, 

 and sends every bird away from his choice 

 feeding-ground. 



See the blackbird too, as I, unfortunately for 



