ii2 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



garden. Blackbirds and thrushes may trouble a 

 gardener sadly at times, but their good qualities 

 should not be forgotten. 



Rooks, especially in a dry season, are by no 

 means the farmer's best friends, but Parson Rook 

 holds a sort of clerical dispensation, I suppose, 

 and he is also too cute to be easily caught or 

 permanently scared, and will enjoy himself to the 

 full under the very shadow of the scarecrow, the 

 hat and coat of which he is well acquainted with, 

 and equally well aware is he that old Dobbs, to 

 whom they formerly belonged, never stuffed him- 

 self with straw like that ; and he thus reasons 

 with himself : ' If it were old Dobbs himself it 

 would not matter, for he never could hit anything 

 with his gun, and is even more frightened of it 

 than we are. As often as not it won't go off, and 

 when it does it nearly knocks him backwards. 

 No, it's not old Dobbs, so here goes for the 

 potatoes.' 



After all, it entails but little trouble or expense 

 to protect the contents of kitchen-gardens from 

 the depredations of birds. Black cotton is very 

 cheap, and when it is well placed there are few 

 birds which will face it. Where this remedy is 

 ineffectual, netting can easily be substituted, and 

 this is now so inexpensive as to be within the 

 means of everyone who can afford to keep a 

 gardener. 



Time was when keepers were the bitterest foes 

 of sparrow-hawks and kestrels, and I fear the 



