182 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



"ty-yack" of the young, are always associated in 

 our mind with those glorious nights when the September 

 moon is at its full. On all sides birds make themselves 

 heard after the silence of the moult. " Yip, yip, yip," 

 squeals a Kestrel, treading air in his usual easy style. 

 At the spot from which he rose hurriedly, we find 

 a lizard's tail still squirming. There is the silver- 

 toned twitter of a " charm " of Goldfinches at the 

 thistle-heads, and, above all, there is the cheerful 

 uproar of the Rooks once more. One must live with 

 a rookery close at hand to understand the manifold 

 activities of the sable folk, all voiced in. modulations 

 of a pliant tongue. At present their clamour expresses 

 satisfaction at the improved supply of worms and 

 grubs, due to the falling of the first autumn rains 

 upon the sun-burnt pastures. But there is also the 

 torrent of cawing which the whole flock, with sudden 

 downward swoop, hurls at the head of a fox or other 

 enemy discovered sneaking to cover, and the deafening 

 outburst of comment or condemnation which follows 

 a sudden silence at the conclusion of one of those 

 mysterious conferences known as " crows' courts." 

 We incline to connect the noisy exuberance of the 

 rooks with the great emergence of Tipulca, popularly 

 craneflies or " daddy longlegs," which takes place 

 about the third week of September. When full grown 

 the grubs, known as "leather jackets," come to the 

 surface of the ground and place themselves upright in 



