374 BIRD LIFE AT BINGHAIVTS MELCOMBE 



of singular and clinging beauty, this episode of his 

 youth : 



" Soft then the voice of rooks from indrawn throat, 

 Thrice, four times o'er repeated, and full oft 

 On their high cradles, by some hidden joy 

 Gladdened beyond their wont, in bustling throngs 

 Among the leaves they riot ; so sweet it is, 

 When showers are spent, their own loved nests again 

 And tender brood to visit." * 



It would be difficult to say whether this descrip- 

 tion, by Virgil, of the rook at the nesting time, or 

 that of the rapid and noisy flight of the rock- 

 pigeon when first disturbed from its rocky cavern, 

 soon passing into a noiseless skimming, without 

 one motion of its wings, or that of the swallow 

 careering round the courts and colonnades of some 

 Roman noble, sipping, as he flies, from the 

 impluvium or the fish-ponds, or, again, that of the 

 wild swoop of the eagle upon the swan in mid air, 

 and the tempest of feathers which falls from his 

 victim to the ground, shows the more accurate and 

 loving observation of bird nature, or is expressed 

 in more characteristically exquisite language. 



Rooks are wasteful alike of their labour and of 



* The translator is Mr James Rhoades, quoted by W. 

 Warde Fowler in his charming Year with the Birds, p. 150. 



