202 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



mentioned, but birds are also abundant where 

 there are no hired men with red waistcoats and 

 brass buttons to watch over their safety. Why 

 do they press so persistently around us; and not 

 in London only, but in every town and village, 

 every house and cottage in this country? Why 

 are they always waiting, congregating as far 

 from us as the depth of garden, lawn, or orchard 

 will allow, yet always near as they dare to come? 

 It is not sentiment, and to be translated into such 

 words as these: "Oh man, why are you un- 

 friendly towards us, or else so indifferent to our 

 existence that you do not note that your children, 

 dependants, and neighbours cruelly persecute us? 

 For we are for peace, and knowing you for the 

 lord of creation, we humbly worship you at a 

 distance, and wish for a share in your affection." 

 No; the small, bright soul which is in a bird is 

 incapable of such a motive, and has only the 

 lesser light of instinct for its guide, and to the 

 birds' instinct we are only one of the wingless 

 mammalians inhabiting the earth, and with the 

 cat and weasel are labelled "dangerous," but the 

 ox and horse and sheep have no such label. Even 

 our larger, dimmer eyes can easily discover the 



