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on the topmost twigs of the high trees. The majority of 

 the birds' edifices are marvels of beauty and form in construc- 

 tion, the materials for which are collected and arranged 

 with such care and skill, and with no other tools but a 

 beak and two claws. In winter the charm of birds is not 

 single ; in the great city few sights are prettier than to 

 watch the seagulls that only of late years asked for our 

 friendship haunting the Thames banks and bridges ; and 

 indeed many of us have found pleasure in this winged 

 invasion. It is in summer-time, perhaps in Nature's own 

 solitudes that the birds bestow the greatest charm, where, 

 for instance, in that spot where the kingfisher darts up and 

 down some quiet brook, flashing like a jewel in a fairy palace, 

 whose walls are hung with purple arras of the loosestrife- 

 spears, studded at the base with the golden moneywort; or, 

 again, in the marshlands, where to swish of scythe rise a 

 thousand voices of sedge warbler, reed warbler, crested grebe, 

 bearded tits and buntings. To the fen inhabitant, the clang- 

 ing of the wild geese, the wrangling of teal, the curlew's pipe, 

 and lapwing's plaint are part and parcel of Nature. Thoreau 

 says : " We can never have enough of Nature ; " and how 

 true is it in this direction, and at this season, when the birds 

 are returning, and the whole face of Nature is smiling ! 



