CHAPTER VII 



SOME BIRD LORE 



" The birds, who make sweet music for us all 

 In our dark hours, as David did for Saul. 



" Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these ? 



Do you ne'er think who made them, and who taught 

 The dialect they speak, where melodies 



Alone are the interpreters of thought ? 

 Whose household words are songs in many keys, 

 Sweeter than instrument of man e'er caught ! 

 Whose habitations in the tree-tops even 

 Are half-way houses on the road to Heaven !" 



Longfellow : The Birds of Killingworth. 



Birds in the Garden. 



Birds are, speaking generally, absolutely essential in 

 the garden, and they are far more friends than 

 enemies of the gardener, if he would only realise 

 this fact. 



But because a blackbird or a thrush steals a 

 few cherries or strawberries, a house-sparrow mis- 

 chievously nips off a few crocus flowers in the spring, 

 a chaffinch or greenfinch purloins a few seeds, or a 

 bullfinch vigorously pulls off the buds of goose- 

 berry or pear — forthwith, in the gardeners' estima- 

 tion, all birds are enemies, and must be got rid of 

 at once. All during the season of the " soft fruit " 

 the patience of gardeners and owners of gardens 

 certainly is apt to be somewhat tried by the birds, 



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