310 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
was a crowd of swallows, when immediately th 
whole flock took wing, and circled about the crow 
following him for some distance. He made ai 
awkward attempt once to get at some of them, bu 
their swiftness of wing took them far out of his reach: 
Crows make no friends; rooks, on the contrary 
make many, and are often accompanied by severa 
other species of birds. A certain friendliness, toc 
seems to exist between sparrows, chaffinches, anc 
greenfinches, which are often found together. 
Some fields are divided into two by a long line o 
posts and rails, which in time become grey from thi 
lichen growing on the wood. The cuckoos in sprin; 
seem to like resting on such rails better than th 
hedges ; and when they are courting, two, or evet 
three, may be sometimes seen on them together 
Presently they fly, and are lost sight of behind th 
trees: but one or other is nearly sure to come bacl 
to the rails again after awhile. Cuckoos perch fre 
quently, too, on those solitary upright stones whicl 
here and there stand in the midst of the fields 
This habit of theirs is quoted by some of the old folk 
as an additional proof that the cuckoo is only a haw! 
changed for the time, and unable to forget his ol 
habits, hawks (and owls) perching often on poles o 
anything upright and detached. 
The cuckoo flies so much like the hawk, and s 
resembles it, as at the first glance to be barely dis 
tinguishable ; but on watching more closely it will b 
