134 A Midland Village: Garden and Meadow. 



istics which attract the inexperienced eye ; but 

 the essential features are alike in both, the long 

 wing, the bill flat at the base, and the gape of the 

 mouth furnished with strong hairs, which act like 

 the backward-bent teeth of the pike in preventing 

 the escape of the prey. 



Our village is so placed, that all the birds that 

 nest in our gardens and orchards have easy and 

 immediate access to a variety of feeding-grounds. 

 From my window, as I write, I look over the 

 village allotments, where all kinds of birds can be 

 supplied with what they need, whether they be 

 grain-eating or grub-eating ; here come the 

 Rooks, from the rookery close by, and quite 

 unconscious of my presence behind the window, 

 and regardless of the carcases of former comrades 

 which swing on some of the allotments, they turn 

 out the grubs with those featherless white bills 

 which are still as great a mystery as the serrated 

 claw of the Nightjar. 



Here also come the Wood-pigeons, and in late 

 summer the Turtle-doves far worse enemies 

 to the cottager than the rooks ; here all the 

 common herd of Blackbirds, Thrushes, Sparrows, 



