BIOGRAPHY. 53 



birds, which never perforate the live wood, find in this diseased 

 part of the tree, or of the branch, a place suitable to their 

 wants. They make a circular hole large enough to admit 

 their bodies, and then they form a cavity within sufficiently 

 spacious to contain their young. Thus does nature kindly 

 smooth the way in order that all her creatures may prosper 

 and be happy. Whenever I see these sylvan carpenters 

 thus employed I say to them, ' Work on, ye pretty birds ; 

 you do no harm in excavating there. I am your friend, 

 and I will tell the owner of the tree that you are not to 

 blame. But his woodman deserves a severe reprimand. 

 He ought to have cut down the tree in the autumn, after 

 the appearance of the fungus.' " 



Even when the tree was hopelessly destroyed by the 

 fungus, Waterton would still find uses for the stump. He 

 would clothe it with ivy so as to render it picturesque, 

 and he would manipulate it so that it should be a home 

 for birds. 



Many of these stumps are in the grounds, and of them 

 I have selected one or two as examples. 



The first shows the " brick and morta,r " system which 

 has already been mentioned. Several habitations for birds 

 are constructed in it, and the stone in front is intended to 

 aid the observer in looking into the nests. I tried to 

 sketch this stump so as not to make it look like a 

 grotesque human face. But exactness was the first con- 

 sideration, and it is represented precisely as it was in 1863. 



The second sketch was chosen because it represents one 

 of the fungus- visited ash-trees described by Waterton. 



The tree has been broken off some ten feet from the 

 ground, at a spot weakened by a fungus. Of the tree itself 

 little remains except the broken stump and a few small 

 branches which still retain their leaves. Ivy has ascended 



