Contents xi 



CHAPTER XIV. 



PAGB 



The Rookery. Building Nests : Young Birds : Rook-Shooting : 

 Stealing Rooks: Antics in the Air: Mode of Flight: White 

 Rooks 213 



CHAPTER XV. 



Rooks Returning to Roost. Vast Flocks : Rook Parliament 

 The two Rook Armies and their Boutes : Rook Laws, Tradi- 

 tions, and Ancient History: 'Throw' of Timber: Thieving 

 Jackdaws .... 228 



CHAPTER XVL. 



Notes on Birds. Nightingales : Chaffinches : Migration : Pack- 

 ing : Intermarriage : Peewits : Crows : Cuckoo's Flight : Golden- 

 crested Wren • 2i0 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Notes on the Year. The Two Natural Eras : Spiders : The 

 Seasons represented together : A Murderous Wasp : Feng-shui. 

 The Birds' White Elephant : Hedge-Memoranda . . . 255 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



SNAKE-LORE. Snakes swallowing Frogs : Swimming : Fond of 

 Milk : Trapping Snakes : Frogs climbing : Toads in Trees.— 

 The Beook. The Hatch : Kingfishers' Haunts and Nests . 271 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Course of the Brook. The Eirds' Bathing-place: Roach: 

 Jacks on their Journeys : Stickleback's Nest : Woodcock. — The 

 Lake. Herons : Mussels : Reign of Terror in the Lake . . 287 



