Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



is game to the peasant with a gun. But at this 

 season the wild canaries, peculiar to Madeira 

 and the Canary Islands, are building in all our 

 garden trees, and enlivening us with their song. 

 Among other garden friends are the grey wag- 

 tail, the linnet, the ring sparrow, and the gold- 

 finch. The red-legged partridge, the woodcock, 

 and the quail breed in the island, but the 

 sportsman must expect to work very hard for 

 a small bag. The snipe is said to be a periodical 

 visitor. Stragglers of various species some- 

 times arrive from the African coast, especially 

 after the prevalence of a strong east wind ; and 

 even American species have been observed, a 

 fact very interesting to naturalists, as it suggests 

 a way in which the seeds of American plants 

 may have reached the island in the past. 



This is a busy season in the. fazenda^ or farm. 

 The sugar-cane is now being cut, and the streets 

 of Funchal are full of ox-drawn sledges con- 

 veying bundles of it to the mill. By a curious 

 perversity these are laid cross-wise on the 

 sledge, instead of length-wise, with the result 

 that the ends will sometimes strike the legs of 

 the unwary wayfarer, or otherwise obstruct 

 traffic, and much shouting and vituperation is 



172 



