^ 



April 



caring a scrap for the neighbours. " Where have 

 you been all this time ? What have you got ? you 

 . . . ! " etc., as plainly as words can speak, spring- 

 ing along the branch from which the cock escapes 

 to a higher one with a deprecating air. 



He will not answer such charges, he seems to 

 say ; and he has a very valid reason. 



But the lady is not to be put off. " Caw ! 

 caw ! caw / " she cries excitedly, until she is beak 

 to beak with him. 



If a rook has a physiognomy, it probably 

 requires a rook to decipher it ; but it would appear 

 that she has learned the signs when she suddenly 

 charges the delinquent's bill, and extracts the love- 

 liest bundle of wireworms that ever gnawed a 

 farmer's crop. 



She bears them with chuckling satisfaction to 

 the nest, and the cock, apparently feeling that he 

 has purged his offence by such a sacrifice, hops up 

 with alacrity to witness the distribution among the 

 young. 



Then comes another phase of the comedy. 

 Having fed the young, the hen hops on to a bough, 

 and stretches her legs and wings, stiff from long 

 sitting. The action appears to be a protest, if not 

 an invitation to the male to " take a turn." This is 

 to be inferred from the manner in which he shuffles 

 aside from the nest, gazing abstractedly toward the 

 field where the lovely wireworms are. 



He must be off! he seems to say. Although 

 127 



