CHAPTER XXII 

 BIRDS AND THE FLOWER GARDEN 



MORE birds would frequent the flower garden if 

 there were fewer cats and dogs roaming around. 

 These much too numerous domesticated animals, 

 because it is their nature, and children, because they 

 are innocently unthoughtful, frighten away if 

 they do not kill some of the birds that would be 

 only too glad to call from time to time, and perhaps 

 settle down for the summer. 



For one, there is that most sociable of spring's 

 harbingers the song sparrow. He will come in 

 February to stay until November, if you do not let 

 him be frightened away. And he will sing the 

 while, day after day, as if his very soul were in the 

 doing of it for you. But you must give him a bit of 

 nearby thicket wherein to let him hide a nest or 

 imagine that he is hiding it. Then he and his mate 

 and their little ones will run around the garden and 

 feel quite at home in every part of it. The catbird, 

 who is a fine singer when he takes the notion, may 

 also be persuaded to nest close by the garden if 

 there is a higher thicket; he likes housekeeping in a 

 bush of the common barberry. 



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