42 



gaping for breath, they screened off the heat from their suffering 

 offspring. 



And now, I hope what I have said about these birds, may lead 

 you all to protect and cherish these pretty, interesting, and useful 

 creatures. The music of birds is grateful to the ear ; to listen to 

 a thousand warblers enjoying happy freedom in their native wood- 

 lands, is, I am sure, to some people most delightful. Birds make 

 part and parcel of the country — they form, so to speak, one of the 

 ingredients in it ; they are among the objects that appeal agreeably 

 to our senses. Who does not arrest his footsteps to listen to the 

 trill of the soaring lark, or to the delightful strains of the Thrush, 

 the Blackbird, or the Blackcap Warbler 1 We feel that the country 

 would lose one of its greatest charms, were it not resonant with 

 their melody. Each grove and shrubbery, each bosky dell from 

 side to side, each heath and upland common, each hedge and 

 garden and petty rural homestead, receives some of these wandering 

 minstrels ; and if I could only impress upon some of you, to seek 

 to know each note and song of these tiny visitants, and distinguish 

 the form and plumage of each songster, my labour will not have 

 been in vain. 



