When red-starts shake their tails they move them horizontally, as
dogs do when they fawn: the tail of a wagtail, when in motion,
bobs up and down like that of a jaded horse.
Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in
breeding-time; as soon as frosty mornings come they make a very
piping plaintive noise.
Many birds which become silent about Midsummer reassume their
notes again in September; as the thrush, blackbird, woodlark,
willow-wren, etc.; hence August is by much the most mute month,
the spring, summer, and autumn through. Are birds induced to sing
again because the temperament of autumn resembles that of spring
?
Linnaeus ranges plants geographically; palms inhabit the tropics,
grasses the temperate zones, and mosses and lichens the polar
circles; no doubt animals may be classed in the same manner with
propriety.
House-sparrows build under eaves in the spring; as the weather
becomes hotter they get out for coolness, and nest in plum-trees
and apple-trees. These birds have been known sometimes to build
in rooks' nests, and sometimes in the forks of boughs under rooks'
nests.
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