Birds and Birds'' 



2 5 



when the fire was lit, there was a fine to-do. " Smoked 

 out " threatened to be the result till some one ventured 

 upon the roof to clear the chimney ; and the excitement 

 caused by the affair would set a whole village astir. 



"There are birds and birds," says a reliable writer. 

 " Of rooks and sparrows we have a surplus, and the 

 latter promise to exterminate the useful, insect-eating 

 martins by burglariously entering their nests and ap- 

 propriating them for their own breeding purposes a 

 most objectionable proceeding, which I am under the 

 impression has only taken place within the last twelve 

 or fifteen years." 



I have many neighbours who belong to the robin 

 and wren families, who, indeed, are so familiar that 

 they have both, for 

 some years past, 

 built in the hedge 

 here, quite near to 

 this seat. The wren 

 is at some trouble 

 to disguise the nest 

 with leaves, the same 

 as those on the 

 hedge; and, besides 

 his artistic power in 

 making a beautiful, 



soft, feathery interior, has indeed quite a wonderful 

 art in varying the outward effect according to circum- 

 stances. In an old tree the nest is made to look 

 exactly like a handful of dry leaves fixed there by the 

 wind; in the ivy the nest has an ivy cover; while 

 near to thatch it looks exactly like dry grass. The 

 wren lays seven or eight eggs, and frequently rears a 

 second brood in the season a most nimble, hearty, 



