COUNTRY LIFE
THE Day of St. Valentine (whichever of the several claimants he was) is as a rule singularly true to its character. Thenabouts we first notice that the birds have paired. But in this queer season they have been un- able—so far as my observation goes—to make up their minds. After signs of breaking up, the partridge coveys coalesced again at the rough hints conveyed by hail, gale, thunder and frost ; and they are, I think, the most punctual of pairers as a rule. The rooks, on the other hand, paired very early, and some of them, in a small north-western colony, were observed in the unusual task of pulling the old nests to pieces—a form of slum-clearance presumably. With me the blackbirds, which are very numerous, have announcd their spring well before the usual date by precocious song. They have been glorious, and I agree with Theodore Roosevelt that the song is the best, the most liquid, of all. We shall find very early nests.
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