JUNE. 99 



admits driving damp that chills their little lives, and 

 at last forces her reluctantly to abandon the cold and 

 clammy ruin of her home. 



BIRDS THAT UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER. 



When a pair of startled partridges go whirring 

 and clucking over the hedge, it is interesting to note 

 that only gregarious birds seem to understand the 

 meaning of their alarm note, and to take warning 

 thereby. A company of starlings feeding at a dis- 

 tance in the meadow will often rise at the sound and 

 follow the partridges over the hedge, not because 

 they are afraid or know what is the matter, but 

 simply because the partridges called out " Danger ! " 

 Flocks of larks in winter will similarly take alarm 

 from the sharp cry of the snipe as it comes twisting 

 over the stubble from the low land whence you scared 

 it ; when the peewit calls out the golden plover flees ; 

 while flocks of all sorts of shore birds take the whistled 

 advice of the flitting redshank and flit too, as the 

 shore-gunner sees, to his vexation, daily. Birds 

 which spend their lives solitarily or in pairs take 

 little notice, on the other hand, of other birds' warn- 

 ings ; and you may often see this very plainly in 

 winter time, when adversity drives rare birds into the 

 strange company of sparrows round your doorstep. 

 At such times every one who takes an interest in the 

 bird-pensioners that crowd round the house for food 

 must have noticed with pleasure that when, on alarm 

 being given, all the common sparrows, chaffinches, 

 and greenfinches, accustomed to communal life, go off 



