II 



III. 



BIRDS THRUSHES. 



You can feel something like affection even 

 for a plant, when you have watched over 

 it and attended to its likes and dislikes as to 

 aspect, soil, moisture, shade and so on, and 

 when it has responded to your care and 

 rewarded you for the pains you have spent 

 upon it, but birds become personal friends, 

 it is an interest and amusement to study their 

 characters and habits, and a delight to listen 

 to their voices. And this friendship is not 

 for any one particular bird (though of course 

 there may be that sometimes), but for the 

 particular species of bird, any one of which 

 that you happen to meet with anywhere seems 

 like an old friend. A lively impudent tomtit 

 for instance is the same amusing companion 

 and it is the same pleasure to hear his cheery 

 note, whether you find him in a suburban 

 garden or in some shady corner of a wood. 



Of course it is a day to be marked with a 

 white stone when you come across a new or a 

 rare bird, but if you watch the commonest 

 sympathetically and intelligently you have an 

 endless fund of interest and amusement. 

 The quarrels, the loves, the boldness and 

 ingenuity even of a sparrow may divert your 

 mind pleasantly and help you to put away 

 worries. Then how eagerly in spring does 



