CHAPTER IV 



GROVE AND GARDEN 

 (Missel Thrush, Chaffinch, Robin, Rook, Starling) 



JUST as shore feeding birds, following the plough 

 several miles inland, know exactly the hour of low 

 tide, and return in flocks to the sea promptly to the 

 minute, so it is specially noticeable that the wild birds 

 of our gardens are often a good deal more punctual than 

 the households to which they become attached. Birds 

 and animals have a very keen sense of the passage of 

 time, and if fed at regular hours they soon acquire the 

 habit of turning up promptly. 



During the winter months a great many kind-hearted 

 people make a rule of feeding the birds, but very few 

 reaHze that their good intentions may culminate in disaster 

 unless intelligently conducted. Blackbirds, thrushes, 

 tits, robins and the like are all creatures of very limited 

 home range. One thing and one thing only decides the 

 extent of their individual habitat — the abundance or 

 otherwise of food. If, for example, a blackbird finds food 

 enough for his needs in one garden, he wanders no further 

 than that garden. Every inch of it is farnihar to him, and 

 on this familiarity he relies for his living. If he flies 

 into the next garden to snatch up a morsel of food, he 

 does so knowing that he is a thief and trespasser, and that 

 he will be immediately attacked by the birds that are 

 resident there, just as he would attack them should they 

 trespass on his preserves. Several other birds there may 

 be who share his domain, but these he regards as part 



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