BIKDS AND MEN 163 



How they love to cluster about solitary farmhouses in the 

 country, girdling them with a fairy ring of music ! But 

 the country round will be often quite empty of them. 

 Perhaps, generation after generation, they are waiting 

 and hoping for a peace of reconciliation between man and 

 beast. 



THE PIGEONS AT OUR WINDOW 



While we lived in New York we made pets of the grey 

 squirrels in the park. It is impossible to describe how 

 we missed these companions of our idle hours when we 

 came to make our home in London. But we have 

 already some beautiful creatures to succeed to those 

 affections we lavished on the gentle and exquisite 

 squirrels. Besides, we do not have to go abroad to 

 find them. They seek us out in our home, and from 

 earliest morning until, at this season of the year, the 

 lamps are lighted in the street, they remain on our 

 balconies, or, within sight of the windows, on the neigh- 

 bouring roofs. It may be that you who read this are 

 lovers of animals, and understand well what joy there is 

 in this presence of wild life here in the very heart of the 

 great city. Is it not something to be awakened in the 

 morning by the soft cooing of our pigeons ; and when we 

 go to our window, to hear the air beaten by their hurry- 

 ing wings, and to see these pretty creatures flying from 

 all directions to greet us? They were not always so 

 tame. How much mistrust and timidity we have had to 

 overcome ! But the squirrels had long ago taught us 

 patience, and those gentle movements which cause no 

 alarm and awaken no suspicion. 



To whom do the pigeons of London belong? At least 

 we own the allegiance of twenty, and know each by name 

 and by habit, and often they bring with them strangers, 

 so that, alas ! there is no room for them all within the 

 little iron railing which ornaments our window. Now 



