Mrs. Currey—Birds in ct Garden near London



55



not far from the sea were perched some Turkey Vultures (Cathartes

aura), old friends which I had met in Chile as far south as the Straits

of Magellan.


From St. Augustine I went by auto to Palatka, on the St. John River.

The owner of the hotel at St. Augustine had told me that I was sure to

admire very much the country I was to pass through — “ All potato

fields, very beautiful ! ” Fortunately it was not “ all potato fields ”,

aud we passed through some beautiful cypress swamps, a kind of

wooden viaduct having been made over the water. A great part of

the country, however, consisted of pine woods, or more exactly

of what had been pine woods, nearly all the trees having been cut down,

as is the case nearly everywhere in Florida.


(To be continued .)



BIRDS IN A GARDEN NEAR LONDON


By Mrs. Cijerf.v


We are only a few miles from the hub of the world, and yet I have

seen about forty species of birds in the old garden. It would be

interesting to keep for a year a diary of notes on birds in such a garden,

though it would be melancholy to find, as building creeps on, their

numbers diminish. Our birds consist of the following : —


A colony of Rooks, once very large, now decreased in size, nests in

the old beeches overlooking the.garden. When busy with nest-building

the birds come on to the lawn quite close up to the house for food. This

spring a Rook with half-white wings has appeared, and we are curious

to see if he will be tolerated among his swarthy brethren. As we

never saw r him before, it would seem as if he were a newcomer, in which

case, however, his sojourn is likely to be of brief duration, as no

foreigners are allowed in the sacred precincts of a rookery. One

luckless “ Outlander ” who once ventured among them, and succeeded in

building a nest — but very much out in the cold and far from the others—

was set upon by the colony and slain, his nest torn to bits, and his carcase

hung from the boughs of the tree he had dared to call his home ! -Jack¬

daws, the Rooks' slaves and scouts, nest in fair numbers below the



