FEBRUARY 41 



Almost all the happenings in the bird world of 

 February are linked together by their connection with 

 the nesting-season, which, in the case of the Heron and 

 Raven, may be in full swing by the end of the month, 

 while with a number of others the earlier stages of 

 courtship or nest-building are reached. Anyone who 

 has a rookery under observation will know the various 

 stages by which its occupants settle down to this, the 

 most serious business of the year. Thus they visit 

 their winter-worn tenements with increasing frequency, 

 spend more time daily in considering the needful 

 repairs, and finally take full possession, henceforth 

 roosting at the rookery and only going as far afield to 

 forage as may be necessary. A knowing ear may at 

 once judge by the increased and altered clamour when 

 this climax has been reached. A February of open 

 weather is tuneful with Thrushes piping to good Saint 

 Valentine and challenging each other from tree to 

 tree. Mistle Thrushes scold harshly and sing in more 

 boisterous stanzas. Robins interrupt their flirting 

 with bouts of fighting. At the very end of the month 

 both they and the thrushes sometimes commence 

 nest-building with ill-considered precipitancy, for few 

 of these early nests come to any good. A late snow- 

 fall causes them to be deserted, or, too evident in the 

 absence of leafy cover, they are laid waste by magpies 

 or jays. It is noticeable that the birds responsible for 

 these early efforts are those which are domiciled in 



