MARCH 65 



has found a suitable hole amongst dead oak-leaves 

 on the mossy bank, and in the wood-yard or amongst 

 the pea-sticks which the gardener has piled up for 

 next season's use, the Hedge Sparrow has a snug 

 nursery in which rest those eggs of a hue unlike any- 

 thing else in nature, neither blue nor green, but a 

 compromise between the two. Joy of the village 

 urchin for untold generations — when did they fail to 

 figure amongst his spoils strung upon a thread by the 

 cottage chimney-piece ? 



Of the country sounds associated with the present 

 month first and foremost is the cheerful clamour 

 of the rookery. Though in a mild season the Rooks 

 resort to their nests very early in the year, apparently 

 to fix upon sites and settle conflicting claims, it is not 

 as a rule till the closing days of February that they are 

 seen bringing twigs and taking the architectural 

 problem seriously in hand. Then follow the pilfer- 

 ing of building materials, the well-known fights, 

 scuffling and buffeting of wings amongst the tree-tops, 

 while with softened modulations of voice other couples 

 strive to express their hymeneal bliss. The ground is 

 strewn with sticks, fining materials, egg-shells, cast- 

 ings of husks of grain, the branches splashed with 

 guano, worm-skins, grub-exuviae, as in a community 

 with too much real business on hand to be careful of 

 street sweeping. No country sound is more character- 

 istically English than the brisk uproar of a rookery in 



