78 About the Feathered Folk. 



are everywhere, and with us always. 

 From the stormy shores of the 

 Hebrides to the Cornish combes 

 and the Irish dargles one may hear 

 their full rich notes; and their 

 voices are so deeply clearly sweet 

 that one need not greatly regret 

 the vagaries of their absent rival. 



One's own memory can call up 

 the song of the Thrushes and the 

 Blackbirds better than any printed 

 words, and there is small need for 

 me. to write of their music here. 

 The Linnets, too : the dear familiar 

 friends, who sit in cosy companies 

 on the branches of the hedgerow- 

 trees, while their song rings forth 

 as though the boughs were hung 

 with fairy bells, breeze-shaken 

 there is no need to write of Linnets. 



But there is need for us each to 

 listen, to " take heed," as the old 

 Saxon word is. We are, all of us, 

 too apt to go thanklessly and 

 blindly on our way, yearning, it 



