XXXIII 

 THE BIRDS OF A MADRAS GARDEN 



RICHARD JEFFERIES devotes several chap- 

 ters of one of the most dehghtful of his 

 books — Wild Life in a Southern County — 

 to the birds that frequent a farm on the 

 Downs. " On looking back," he writes, " it appears 

 that the farm-house, garden, orchard, and rickyard 

 at Wick are constantly visited by about thirty- 

 five wild creatures, and, in addition, five others 

 come now and then, making a total of forty. Of these 

 forty, twenty-six are birds, two bats, eight quad- 

 rupeds, and four reptiles. This does not include some 

 few additional birds that only come at long intervals, 

 nor those that simply fly overhead or are heard singing 

 at a distance. 



" Around the farm-house itself come the starlings, 

 sparrows, swallows, water wagtails, hedge-sparrows, 

 robins, wrens, tomtits, thrushes, and blackbirds. 

 The orchard is frequented by sand martins, cuckoos, 

 missel thrushes, goldfinches, greenfinches, flycatchers, 

 hnnets, blackcaps, and titmice. 



" In the rickyard are seen redstarts, stone-chats, 

 rooks, chaffinches, wood-pigeons, doves, and larks." 



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