ever, they rose in a body and began flying upwards in wide circles till they looked like a parcel of little birds high up in the air-still sweeping round and round. Then, all at once, the whole community slid off in the same direction with level wing, till they passed away out of sight. They had flown so high to get this glorious launch. Their notes, when they dashed off down the air slope, were a chorus of corvine laughter. Two or three fell out, and came grumbling back; they had forgotten something, I suppose, or were bilious and unsociable-all the rest were absent for the

day.

Rooks do not always sleep at home. Sometimes the trees in which they may be said to live are deserted at night; generally when they are absent it is in company. You may frequently see many hundreds about sunset flying steadily in one direction: they are going to bed. Their only thought when turning in is to go to sleep with their noses to the wind.

Rooks' nests are built to last, being merely repaired from year to year. Indeed, I have known them put in "a stitch in time," even before the usual building season commenced.

They choose the sites for their dwellings

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Building Places.

with much apparent caprice-sometimes fixing on low accessible firs, sometimes even solitary trees in the heart of London itself, though generally they prefer the "windy elms" near a country house. They lay four or five eggs, of a dull blotchy green, and place their nests close together on the tops of whatever trees they select for the purpose. Thus they are obliged to look very sharp after their proper sticks, and punish theft-sometimes even trespass-with strict severity; for they are occasionally as jealous of new comers, who try to settle honestly among them, as they are indignant at the discovery of fraud among the recognised members of their own community; in some cases uniting to drive them quite away, in others only pulling their half-built nest to pieces, when they try to build them too near to those of the original proprietors. But, on the whole, they agree pretty well among themselves.

NUTHATCHES.

HEN I was a boy I lived in a house which had an old mulberry tree a

few yards from the dining-room window. Its ragged bark, and, in several places, cracked decaying boughs, afforded shelter for a number of creeping insects. These, of course, were eagerly sought by various birds. There were always some tomtits prying and peeping about for such imperfectly concealed animals as their short soft bills could manage to pull out. But, besides these, we frequently noticed a pair of nuthatches, which not only chipped away lustily to lay bare covered dainties, but used the cracks in which to fix, as in a vice, the favourite food from which they have received their name. Whatever they ate, they liked nuts best.

Being generally considered shy birds, we were surprised at their venturing so near the house, and determined to return their confidence. At first we stuck nuts in crevices of

78

Taming Nuthatches.

the tree, and amused ourselves by watching these birds split them with their chisel-like bills. Presently, however, finding that they grew more constant in their visits, we cracked the shells for them, and pinned the kernels to a flat place where a bough, right in view of the window, had been sawn off. They soon found this out, and instead of hunting about all over the tree, would fly at once to the ready-spread table, and pitch into the nuts might and main.

Seeing their increasing confidence, we next nailed a piece of board, a foot square, to the top of a stake, which we then drove into the ground about half a yard from the window, and furnished it with nuts. Next day the birds came, and, finding their old table empty, began to look about, wondering what it meant. Presently they espied the fresh arrangement, and after a little hesitation would light on the board for a moment, chip a morsel off, and then wait to see whether any harm followed. Finding none, in a few days they came as readily to the board as they did in the first instance to the tree, and pegged away at the nuts, though two or three persons stood close by watching them through the window.

It was very amusing to watch the jealousy with which they always drove the tomtits away

Nuthatches and Tomtits.

79

little fellows soon

from their feast. These poor found out that nuts without shells were nice eating, and were always ready, in case the tyrants were unpunctual at breakfast. If they

were a minute behind time three or four tomtits would peck away the instant the nuts were fastened down, eating as fast as they could during the precious interval; when, whack! down the nuthatch came among them, sending them them off in a jiffy to watch him take his breakfast, while they made a pretence of examining the tree for small deer of their own. Not sharing the nuthatch's objections to the society of the tomtits, we contrived a plan by which they might eat without interruption. By stringing nuts on a strong piece of thread, and stretching it from the tree to the windowframe, we made the tits quite happy and independent. The nuthatch cannot feed without a strong grip for his claws; he then uses the weight of his whole body to give force to his blows, catching the chips as he strikes them off. The tomtit, however, hangs on, and nibbles away gently, swallowing each morsel as he bites it into his mouth. The strung nuts were indeed nuts to him; he ate them thankfully, and topsy turvy, while the enraged nuthatch had no purchase for his foot, and consequently could not