February 



while, as who would say, " Shoo ! Begone ! " This 

 demonstration is watched from the rear by a bird of 

 slimmer build, with a brick-red breast as it flutters 

 nervously about the undergrowth, emitting an acute, 

 inward, whining note, familiar to all who have at any 

 time approached the nesting hen. For the robin has 

 paired I saw my first pair on January 28th and 

 although the nest is probably not yet begun, coming 

 events cast their shadows before, and the cares of 

 two, perhaps even three, prospective broods are 

 upon her. 



It is now certain that the yellow wagtail hasJeft 

 us, in spite of the fact that I saw one as late as the 

 23rd November by the water's edge on the Mersey 

 bank. If it were not so, he would be following the 

 plough with his kinsman, the pied wagtail. It 

 requires three to plough a field a man, a horse, and 

 a wagtail. The last follows in the furrow last cut, 

 and eats the grubs. 



As usual on fine open days at this time of the 

 year, the skylark seems to start out from nowhere, 

 and, spiralling up into the blue, carries one's mind 

 ahead by the impulse of his carolling to days when, 

 by its natural fitness with the season, it will fail to 

 arrest the hearer's attention as it does now. Even 

 if the lark had no song, its movements on the wing 

 are so characteristic that they alone would serve to 

 identify it ; first, the broad spiralling curves by 

 which he lays the base of his tower of ascent, be- 

 coming narrower and narrower as he rises, until, with 



