PROTECTION OF BIRDS. 133 



guns. The removal of this miscellaneous undergrowth 

 and border shrubbery would as effectually banish the red- 

 thrush, the catbird, and the smaller thrushes, as we should 

 extirpate the squirrels by destroying all the nut-bearing 

 trees and shrubs. 



A smooth-shaven green is delightful to the eye at all 

 times ; but lawn is a luxury that is obtained at the ex- 

 pense of the familiar birds that nestle upon the ground. 

 The song-sparrows build their nests in the most fre- 

 quented places, if they are not liable to be disturbed. Not 

 a rod from our dwelling-house these little birds may have 

 their nests, if the right conditions are there. They are 

 often built on the side of a mound overrun by blackberry- 

 vines and wild rose-bushes. He who would entice them 

 to breed in his enclosures must not, for the preservation 

 of a foolish kind of neatness, eradicate the native shrubs 

 and vines as useless weeds. 



Clipped hedge-rows, which have been recommended 

 as nurseries of birds, are checks to their multiplication. 

 A hedge-row cannot be " properly " maintained without 

 keeping the soil about its roots clear of grass and wild 

 herbage, which are needful to the birds. It is only a 

 neglected hedge-row that is useful to them, or a sponta- 

 neous growth of bushes and briers, such as constitutes 

 one of the picturesque attractions of a New England 

 stone-wall. We seldom see one that is not covered on 

 each side with roses, brambles, spirea, viburnum, and 

 other native vines and shrubs, so that in some of our open 

 fields the stone-walls, with their accompaniments, are the 

 most attractive objects in the landscape. Along their bor- 

 ders Nature calls out, in their season, the anemone, the 

 violet, the cranesbill, the bellwort, the convolvulus, and 

 many other flowers of exceeding beauty, while the rest 

 of the field is devoted to tillage. 



The " nice man " who undertakes farming will grudge 



