OF GARDENS. 
213 
with their parents, are constant partakers of the delicacies I 
provide. They are especially tame, sit on the rails within a 
few feet as I pass, and feed with the pigeons close up to the 
windows. But they will never meet my eye ; to look at them 
straight in the face at once puts them to flight. By the 
way, it seems to me that rooks are the only birds that see 
through glass. No movement in the room affects other birds, 
but rooks are cognizant of all that goes on, and an approach 
to the window is the signal for immediate flight. Some rooks 
feed their young, more or less, to a late period in the autumn. 
I have seen the process late in November. A flock arises 
pretty early in the morning through the greater part of the 
year, and there is generally, though not always, a black crowd 
on the lawn at breakfast time, favouring me with a second 
visit at luncheon. 
Summer birds, of course, have long since departed, and the 
winter visitants are seldom in evidence, at least after the very 
early morning. Thrushes abound, especially the missel thrushes, 
who affect the yew berries so long as they last. The berries of 
the Irish yew are not so much to their taste as those of the 
common yew, but having cleared the latter all off, they are now 
hard at work on the Irish. The berries grow on the lightest 
twigs, and as they will not support the birds the thrushes obtain 
them by jumping up from below in a comical manner. The 
bullfinch and greenfinch nip off the sprays, and descending, 
eat the berries on the ground. They make a sad litter. There 
is a good crop of nuts this year, and squirrels and nuthatches 
are constantly seeking them. The squirrels’ abode is at a con- 
siderable distance ftom the trees, and I fancy that they carry 
away the nuts, as do the nuthatches, one at a time, depositing 
them, no doubt, in a hoard for future use. The nuthatches only 
fly to a suitable tree where the rough bark enables them to fix 
the nut and to break the shell. 
George Roofer. 
OF GARDENS. 
^liAuT is happily not only misfortunes that come “not as 
^ aS ' single spies but in battalions.” The delay which 
prevented us noticing sooner Canon Ellacombe’s In a 
Gloucestershire Gardeti* enabled us to place beside it the 
Hon. Mrs. Boyle’s Garden of Pleasure, f and now Mr. Alfred Austin’s 
Veronica’s Garden comes in time to be included with them. 
The three books have much in common. The author of each 
has written on the subject of gardens before, and is fortunate 
* In a Gloiicestershhe Carden, by Henry N. Ellacombe, Hon. Canon of Bristol. 
(Edward Arnold, 6s.) 
t A Garden of Pleasure, by E. V. B. (Elliot Stock, 5s.) 
J In Veronica’s Carden, by Alfred Austin. (Macmillan & Co., 9s.) 
