2 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



ing at the water's edge. I saw it make two 

 journeys with large wisps of dry grass in its beak, 

 running up the rough, slanting trunk to a height 

 of sixteen to seventeen feet, and disappearing 

 within the ^'brushwood sheaf" that springs from 

 the bole at that distance from the roots. The 

 wood-pigeons were much more numerous, also 

 more eager to be fed. They seemed to under- 

 stand very quickly that my bread and grain was 

 for them and not the sparrows ; but although they 

 stationed themselves close to me, the little robbers 

 we were jointly trying to outwit managed to get 

 some pieces of bread by flying up and catching 

 them before they touched the sward. This little 

 comedy over, I visited the water-fowl, ducks of 

 many kinds, sheldrakes, geese from many lands, 

 swans black, and swans white. To see birds in 

 prison during the spring mood of which I have 

 spoken is not only no satisfaction but a positive 

 pain; here — albeit without that large liberty that 

 nature gives, they are free in a measure; and 

 swimming and diving or dozing in the sunshine, 

 with the blue sky above them, they are perhaps 

 unconscious of any restraint. Walking along the 

 margin I noticed three children some yards ahead 



