BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 131 



sportsmen, and sweep the bird-catchers out of 

 their lanes and waste lands. 



One day I paid a visit to Maidenhead, a pleas- 

 ant town on the Thames, where the Thames is 

 most beautiful, set in the midst of a rich and 

 diversified country which should be a bird's para- 

 dise. In my walks in the town, I saw a great many 

 stuffed kingfishers, and, in the shops of the local 

 taxidermists, some rare and beautiful birds, with 

 others that are fast becoming rare. But outside 

 of the town I saw no kingfishers and no rare 

 species at all, and comparatively few birds of 

 any kind. It might have been a town of Philistine 

 cockneys who at no very distant period had emi- 

 grated thither from the parish of St. Giles-in-the- 

 Fields. I came home with the local guide-book 

 in my pocket. It is now before me, and this is 

 what its writer says of the Thicket, the extensive 

 and beautiful common two miles from the town, 

 which belongs to Maidenhead, or, in other words, 

 to its inhabitants: "The Thicket was formerly 

 much infested by robbers and highwaymen. The 

 only remains of them to be found now are the 

 snarers of the little feathered songsters, who im- 



