138 MY NATURE NOTEBOOK. 



it drew near. There was little of the peewit's cha- 

 racteristic buoyancy in their flight. With slow- 

 flapping wings, straight and business-like, they shaped 

 their thronged course for the large green squares 

 upon the chess-board landscape, which showed where 

 turnip-fields lay among the harvest's golden chequers. 

 Catching sight of the watcher below, half of the host 

 would wheel to one side and half to the other for 

 the way-worn peewit knows what it is to be welcomed 

 with a shot-gun ; but when the birds of one section 

 caught a glad glimpse of others of their kind seated 

 peacefully in the adjoining turnip-field, how quickly 

 they swooped earthwards, and at the same moment 

 the other section, seeing the movement, glided side- 

 long across the sky to join them, and poured their 

 flying ranks, like a shower of rain descending in 

 sweeping curves, into the green shelter of the spread- 

 ing turnip-leaves. For a minute the field was full of 

 plaintive conversation as the new-comers settled them- 

 selves to rest Then silence fell on them all, sitting, 

 as they had flown, in ordered ranks down the rows of 

 turnips, until another flock arriving caught sight of 

 the company, and descended also in gracefullest 

 curves to join them. 



THE ROOK AND THE CORN. 



Next day they had scattered themselves over the 

 country-side, and the rooks which had come with 

 them began to make their presence known in harvest 

 fields where they had not been seen for many weeks ; 

 for it seems characteristic of the wily rook that he 

 should leave us when the crops have grown too high 



