ner; some had followed the dropping acorns along
the hedge into another piece of stubble; others went into a breadth of
turnips.

Day by day their numbers diminished as they parted, till only three or
four could be seen. Such a sortie from cover is the standing risk of the
game-preserver. Towards the end of September, on passing a barley-field,
still partly uncut, and with some spread, there was a loud, confused,
murmuring sound up in the trees, like that caused by the immense flocks
of starlings which collect in winter. The sound, however, did not seem
quite the same, and upon investigation it turned out to be an incredible
number of sparrows, whose voices were audible across the field.

They presently flew out from the hedge, and alighted on one of the rows
of cut barley, making it suddenly brown from one end to the other. There
must have been thousands; they continually flew up, swept round with a
whirring of wings, and settled, again darkening the spot they chose.
Now, as the sparrow eats from morning to night without ceasing, say for
about twelve hours, and picks up a grain of corn in the twinkling of an
eye, it would be a moderate calculation to allow this vast flock two
sacks a week. Among them there was one white sparrow--his white wings
showed distinctly among the brown flock. In the most remote country I
never observed so great a number of these birds at once; the loss to the
farmers must be considerable.

There were a few fine days at the end of the month. One afternoon there
rose up a flock of rooks out of a large oak tree standing separate in
the midst of an arable field which was then at last being ploughed. This
oak is a favourite with the rooks of the neighbourhood, and they have
been noticed to visit it more frequently than others. Up they went,
perhaps a hundred of them, rooks and jackdaws together cawing and
soaring round and round till they reached a great height. At that level,
as if they had attained their ballroom, they swept round and round on
outstretched wings, describing circles and ovals in the air. Caw-caw!
jack-juck-juck! Thus dancing in slow measure, they enjoyed the sunshine,
full from their feast of acorns.

Often as one was sailing on another approached and interfered with his
course when they wheeled about each other. Soon one dived. Holding his
wings at full stretch and rigid, he dived headlong, rotating as he fell,
till his beak appeared as if it would be driven into the ground by