Constant Residents in the Garden 131 



they see a chance. The logs (for fuel) stored in the latter 

 doubtless afford them insects from under the dead bark. 



Among the most constant residents in the garden at 

 Wick Farm are the song thrushes. They are the tamest 

 of the larger birds ; they corne every morning right under 

 the old bay-window of the sitting-room on the shady side 

 of the house, where the musk-plant has spread abroad and 

 covered the stone-pitching for many yards, except just a 

 narrow path paved with broad flagstones. The musk finds 

 root in every interstice of the pitching, but cannot push 

 up through the solid flat flags ; a fungus, however, has 

 attempted even that, and has succeeded in forcing a great 

 stone, weighing perhaps fifteen or twenty pounds, from its 

 bed, so that instead of being level it forms an inclined 

 plane. The carpet of musk yields a pleasant odour ; in 

 one corner, too, the 'monkey-plant' grows luxuriously, 

 and the grass of the green or lawn is for ever trying to 

 encroach upon the paving. In the centre of the green is 

 a bed of gooseberries and a cherry tree ; and though the 

 fruit is so close to the window, both thrush and blackbird 

 make as free with it as if it was in the hedgerow. 



The thrush, when he wishes to approach the house, 

 flies first to the cover of these gooseberries ; then, after 

 reconnoitring a few minutes, comes out on the green and 

 gradually works his way across it to the stone-pitching, 

 and so along under the very window. The blackbird 

 comes almost as often to the lawn, but it is in a different 

 way. His manner is that of a bold marauder, conscious 

 that he has no right, and aware that a shot from an am- 

 buscade may lay him low, but defiantly risking the danger. 

 He perches first on a bush, or on the garden wall, under 

 the sheltering boughs of the lime trees, at a distance of 

 some twenty yards ; then, waiting till all is clear, he makes 



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