BIRDS AND GARDENS 217 



squash him or let him escape. The hard 

 green caterpillar found on the under side of 

 the leaves, is not so unpleasant, as he at all 

 events is clean and dry and slow, and can be 

 picked off neatly and thrown on the grass 

 or the gravel walk for the hard-worked parent 

 thrush, who slaves early and late to satisfy his 

 nestlings among the Roses outside my bed- 

 room. But chiefly do I loathe a small, 

 greenish-grey wretch with a black head, and 

 an even more vile creature that leaps and twists 

 like a trout on the hook ; for these are both 

 soft and slimy and easily squashed. Instead 

 therefore of rejoicing in the divine beauty of 

 the burst of early Summer, the unhappy Rose- 

 grower too often wanders about with eyes and 

 mind fixed on the curled leaves, the glued and 

 twisted shoots, that denote grubs. A thunder- 

 storm, far from annoying, seems only to refresh 

 them, and to render their appetites more cheer- 

 fully voracious. And even constant syringing 

 fails sometimes to check them. For some 

 years I used the excellent mixture advised by 

 my old friend Mr. Alfred Perkins, of Coventry. 



