MAY 101 



to range the woods in family parties, and the Rooks, 

 with such juveniles as have escaped the baptism of 

 fire which greeted their first fluttering appearance as 

 " branchers," again betake themselves to meadow and 

 corn-field. 



Turn where we will this May morning, when the 

 woods are all one blue sheen of wild hyacinths, there is 

 something of interest to note. The air is cleared and 

 freshened by the showers of the night and every bird- 

 throat is thrilling with song. Willow Wrens answer 

 each other in a ceaseless chime. See the Whitethroat 

 as he bustles and fusses into and out of the hedge, then 

 throws himself into the air to sing. Next, with a beak 

 full of dry bents he disappears, just where the nettles 

 are growing up thickly through the lower part of the 

 bramble bush. Anon he dances off to a hedgerow 

 tree, singing as he flies, a restless sprite with all the 

 pleasing fever of spring-time in his blood. His flimsy 

 nursery, when finished, is so slight and frail, that the 

 eggs can almost be seen through it. What varying 

 grades of craftmanship are exemplified by the nests 

 which one may meet with in a May morning ! At the 

 foot of the scale is the scanty handful of twigs upon 

 which the ring-dove broods, more pigeon than nest. 

 A decided advance is shown by the platform of sticks 

 which the sparrow-hawk builds upon the side branches 

 half way up the stem of the larch. While the ex- 

 quisitely neat nest of the chaffinch exemplifies what 



