82 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



all the big trees on the edge of the wood swarm- 

 ing with birds — jays, thrushes, blackbirds, doves, 

 and all sorts of tits and little birds, just waiting 

 for a chance to pounce down and devour the 

 cherries. The noise kept them off, but many 

 would dodge In, and even if a gun was fired close 

 to them the blackbirds would snatch a cherry and 

 carry it off to the wood. That didn't matter — 

 a few cherries here and there didn't count. The 

 starlings were the worst robbers: if you didn't 

 scare them they would strip a tree and even an 

 orchard in a few hours. But they were the easiest 

 birds to deal with: they went in flocks, and a 

 shout or rattle or report of a gun sent the lot 

 of them away together. His way of looking at 

 it was this. In the fruit season, which lasts only 

 a few weeks, you are bound to suffer from the 

 attacks of birds, whether they are your own birds 

 only or your own combined with others from out- 

 side, unless you keep them off; that those who 

 do not keep them off are foolish or indolent, and 

 deserv'e to suffer. The fruit season was, he said, 

 always an anxious time. 



In conclusion, I remarked that the means used 

 for protecting the fruit, whether they served their 



