104 IN AN\OLD] DESERTED GARDEN— 
any English garden such as this without one? 
Chaffinches gambolled in the nut trees, which 
would later on be showing for fruit. Once, 
and once only, a wryneck let us hear his quick 
loud call. He detected our presence, and 
did not stay even to look at us, nor allowed 
us to get a glimpse of him. Suddenly one 
of the blackbirds, abruptly ceasing his song, 
dashed into a bush close by with that angry 
scold of his before mentioned, as if this time 
he wished to say, ‘how dare you intrude 
upon our sanctity ?’ _He was off again in an 
instant, apparently meaning to tell us, as 
he repeated his shnek,. that he zwoam 
forthwith go and ‘apprize all his kimges 
our unwarrantable encroachment on_ their 
privacy. We hoped that these birds were 
nesting in this quiet garden, and there was 
evidence of this, for, passing an old gate 
with crumbling brick pillars that led into a 
paddock on the other side, I picked up the 
half of a thrush’s egg, which told of young 
having been hatched. This egg was very 
neatly cracked in the middle. I took it 
