RAMBLE II. 



IN GARDEN, PARK, AND SHRUBBERY. 



OUR rambles through the gardens, parks, and 

 shrubberies will introduce us not only to some 

 shy and retiring birds, but to many of our most 

 homely species those whose names are as house- 

 hold words to every dweller in the country. At 

 all seasons of the year these spots are the chosen 

 haunt of birds ; we shall never find time hang 

 heavy in them ; summer and winter alike they 

 swarm with a vast army of feathered folk, whose 

 varying ways are ever a source of untold interest 

 to him whose sympathies are awakened in the 

 contemplation of the wondrous works of Nature. 



In many big shrubberies a fair number of 

 forest trees occur, and here very often for time 

 gnghmd and out of mind the ROOKS (Corvus frugilegus) have 

 rarer n north. had their colony. The purplish black plumage of 

 the Rook, and its gray warty face, are too well 

 known to need further description. The big 

 nests are easy enough to see all through the 

 winter and the spring, until the deciduous foliage 

 conceals them ; but by that time the young are 

 almost ready for flight. As we shall meet with 

 the Rook elsewhere (see p. 85), for the present 



