January 



If the blackbird, unlike his fellow thrush the 

 throstle, has not yet found his singing voice, he fills 

 the air at sundown with his noisy alarm note. I have 

 heard the bird continue to utter for minutes, without 

 a break, his sounding " Pink ! pink / pink / " until 

 one might have imagined that all the cats of the 

 countryside were besieging him in his lonely ever- 

 green citadel. 



On the last day of January I observed a pair of 

 robins paying one another marked attention. There 

 were three of them in a low thorn an unusual 

 assemblage for a bird of such solitary habits. Two 

 were cocks, the other a hen. One of the cocks, 

 perching on a twig a few inches before the hen, was 

 going through a performance of bowing and flirting 

 up his tail at all angles to his lady spectator in the 

 manner usual with this bird, but with more than 

 usual excitement in his movements. While he was 

 thus employed, the hen, without changing her 

 position, continued to sway her body from side to 

 side, with a dreamy balancing motion, facing the 

 gesticulating cock. The second cock, perched a 

 foot behind her, had evidently been "cut out" by 

 his rival, and these amorous antics had been going on 

 for some minutes, when the successful cock darted 

 suddenly round the hen, and after a short scuffle, 

 rid himself of the embarrassing company of the 

 superfluous witness. 



On the same day I noticed that a gallant hedge- 

 sparrow had come to make things rosy for a highly 



6 S F 



