WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



his trifling harm. He flits quietly and busily all 

 over the shrubbery, an image of a happy and 

 contented little workman, tra-la-la-ing in a fine, 

 trilling voice that would be shrill were it not so 

 sweet, an aria from some bright bird-opera. 



The chippy is so easily watched that I do not pro- 

 pose to tell all I have learned about it, and thus 

 rob a reader of the pleasure of learning its beauti- 

 ful ways for himself. You will not find it difficult 

 to become acquainted with these pygmy sparrows 

 after you have recognized their chestnut caps 

 among your rose - bushes. You will see, also, 

 that you may tame them and teach them to come 

 to you for crumbs. They are almost the only 

 birds that the insolent English sparrow^s will be 

 friendly towards; and they are wonderfully de- 

 voted to their young: but I am forgetting that 

 the reader was to find all this out for himself! 



I have in mind the delta of a river whose shores 

 are so level that it is a constant struggle whether 

 land or water shall prevail. The river finds its 

 way to the broad harbor through a dozen or more 

 channels, between which are low islands over- 

 grown with great trees burdened and festooned 

 with grape-vines and moss, and tangled with 

 thickets and rank fern-brakes, or growths of wild 



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