APRIL 81 



and exuberant vitality, finding expression in many a 

 drama in which rivalry and the desire to make a brave 

 show in the eyes of a prospective mate are the actuating 

 motives. Listen to the Greenfinch as he trills and 

 drawls all day from the apple bough or takes his waver- 

 ing nuptial flights from tree to tree. Two cock 

 Chaffinches dart past in mad chase, then scuffle and 

 buffet in the dust of the road, so blind to all but their 

 quarrel that we come within an ace of picking them 

 up. Who does not know the tourney of the street 

 Sparrow, the combatants rolling in a tumbled, yelping 

 heap in the middle of the crocus bed ? The cock 

 Yellow-hammer hopping down the path with raised 

 crest, drooping wings and partially spread tail to show 

 off his spring plumage to best advantage, has an eye 

 only to the plain little hen which to all appearance 

 ignores him utterly. How many have seen the 

 nuptial display of the male Pied Wagtail, when, 

 directing his bill towards the object of his attentions, 

 he waltzes slowly round her in a semicircle, executing 

 a tasteful pas seul ? In such small comedies do these 

 April days abound. 



Before the month has half run its course the birds 

 which breed early begin to hatch. The Hedge Sparrow 

 has converted her blue-green eggs into callow nest- 

 lings, which raise orange-red gapes for food as we part 

 the twigs to view them. The young Mistle Thrushes, 

 now too large for theirnest, scramble out on to its edge 



