CHAPTER VI. 



IN FARM AND GARDEN. 



ONE of the greatest charms about bird-life of the 

 farm and garden is its great variety. Any 

 person who cares to go the right way to work can 

 acquire a very fair ornithological education in such 

 places, a large percentage of our best-known birds 

 being found in them at one time of the year or 

 another. It was our good fortune for a great many 

 years to ornithologize upon several hundreds of 

 acres of farm land of the most diversified character; 

 whilst an additional advantage was the fact that 

 we had to contend with no high-farming, the greater 

 portion of it being worked on the good old slovenly 

 plan — weedy corners, long stubbles, uncut hedges, 

 and general untidiness — so attractive to birds. Al- 

 most every possible description of cover could be 

 found. We had high ground, sheltered valleys, 

 wooded bottoms, plenty of timber in field and hedge- 

 row, trout streams and sunk fences, patches of bog, 

 and great thickets of briar and bramble in unused 

 corners; large stackyards, plenty of old sheds and 

 buildings, some of them covered with ivy, and an 

 abundance of evergreens round about the homesteads. 



