

LETTER VI 



Birds Danger of Collisions amongst Birds Wagtails Swallows 

 Boat-house River Flood Terns Sooty Tern Description 

 of Flock of Terns Snails Parrot Tulips Gerard's descrip- 

 tion of Tulip. 



\$th May 1886. 



I WAS reminded of you, dear Marco, this 

 morning, by the vast quantities of birds that 

 were busy on the lawn in front of my bed- 

 room window ; after the heavy rains of the 

 last two days they were all at it, picking 

 away to feed their rising families : starlings, 

 thrushes, blackbirds, sparrows, robins, and 

 wagtails. The air swarmed with swallows, 

 and when my wife opened the window down 

 came a perfect shower of martins which had 

 been perched on the eaves above. I never 

 saw a scene of greater activity, the wonder 

 being that there were no collisions in the air 



D 



