278 THE CHAFFINCH. 
the country. They were slain without pity, or were 
chased away by every intruding gunner who took 
pleasure in pursuing them ; and whose heart never 
throbbed at the sight of the poor bleeding bird 
which lay dead at his feet. 
Thus the melody cf the vernal thrush, and the 
plaintive notes of the ring-dove, scarcely ever an- 
nounced to us the arrival of that interesting time of 
the year when Nature awakes from her long and 
dreary sleep of winter. These sweet choristers of 
the grove were said to do mischief in the orchard, 
and in the kitchen garden ; and this was a sufficient 
pretext to place them in no other light than that of 
common outlaws, to be punished with death when- 
ever an opportunity should offer. 
The little chaffinch, too, was to have no favour 
shown to him. He was known to haunt the beds of 
early radishes: and he would have done a deal of 
damage there, forsooth, had not our gardener luckily 
been allowed the use of a gun, with which he 
managed to kill, or to drive away, every chaflinch, 
thrush, and blackbird, that arrived within the pre- 
cinct of his horticultural domain. 
But this promiscuous slaughter has ceased at last. 
Every bird, be his qualities bad or good, is now 
welcome here; and still nothing seems to go wrong, 
either in the orchard, or in the garden. Neither 
does the protection afforded to them appear to act 
to my disadvantage in other quarters. The dovecot 
is most productive, notwithstanding that a colony of 
starlings (those pests to all dovecots in the eyes of 
farmers) exists within a stone’s throw of it. The 
