BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
About the middle of last May, after a rough and 
cold period, there came a spell of brilliant weather, 
reviving in me the old spring feeling, the passion 
for rural nature, the desire for the companionship 
of birds ; and I betook myself to St. James's Park 
for the sake of such satisfaction as is to be had 
by watching and feeding the fowls, wild and semi- 
wild, found gathered at that favoured spot. 
I was glad to observe a couple of those new 
colonists of the ornamental water, the dab-chicks, 
and to renew my acquaintance with the familiar, 
lonof- established moor-hens. One of them was 
engaged in building its nest in an elm tree growing 
at the water's edge. I saw it make two journeys 
with large wisps of dry grass in its beak, running 
up the rough, slanting trunk to a height of sixteen 
to seventeen feet, and disappearing within the 
" brushwood sheaf " that springs from the bole at 
that distance from the roots. The wood-pigeons 
were much more numerous, also more eager to be fed. 
They seemed to understand very quickly that my 
