CHAPTER XXIII 



BirO0 in tljt <3sivtizn 



Sparrows — Birds and insects — Flying flowers — Garden 

 music — The Nightingale. 



If I were to ask the question whether birds were 

 useful or hurtful in the garden, I should get many 

 different answers. The professional gardener would 

 answer, without any hesitation, that he would be glad 

 to have them all cleared away. And certainly it is a 

 vexing thing to have to wage constant war with them, 

 from the sowing of the seed till the crops are gathered, 

 and generally to be beaten by them, for most of them 

 have no respect for gardeners, and no fear of any sort 

 of scarecrows, or if they ever have a fear, a very short 

 acquaintance with the scarecrow soon breeds contempt, 

 and they use it for a point of vantage. Yet there is 

 much to be said for the birds, even from the gardener's 

 point of view, and, without writing any general account 

 of the birds that haunt, or may from time to time be 

 found, in our gardens, I wish to say something for 



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