WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



his trifling harm. He flits quietly and busily all 

 over the shrubbety, an image of a happy and 

 contented little workman, tra-la-la-ing in a fine, 

 trilling voice that would be shrill were it not so 

 sweet, an aria from some bright bird-opera. 



The chippy is so easily watched that I do not pro- 

 pose to tell all I have learned about it, and thus 

 rob a reader of the pleasure of learning its beauti- 

 ful ways for himself. You will not find it difficult 

 to become acquainted with these pygmy sparrows 

 after you have recognized their chestnut caps 

 among your rose - bushes. You will see, also, 

 that you may tame them and teach them to come 

 to you for crumbs. They are almost the only 

 birds that the insolent English sparrows will be 

 friendly towards; and they are wonderfully de- 

 voted to their young: but I am forgetting that 

 the reader was to find all this out for himself! 



I have in mind the delta of a river whose shores 

 are so level that it is a constant struggle whether 

 land or water shall prevail. The river finds its 

 way to the broad harbor through a dozen or more 

 channels, between which are low islands over- 

 grown with great trees burdened and festooned 

 with grape-vines and moss, and tangled with 

 thickets and rank fern-brakes, or growths of wild 



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