CHAPTER II. 



GARDEN AND ORCHARD BIRD-LIFE. 



DEVONSHIRE is a land of gardens and orchards. 

 It is true the jerry-builder, the arch destroyer of 

 many a lovely spot, has left the mark of his 

 presence here and there throughout the county, 

 especially near the coast, where what a year or so 

 ago was a sleepy country village buried in gardens 

 and orchards has now become "a rising and 

 fashionable watering-place," or with aspirations 

 in that direction fondly cherished by the local 

 magnates. Aided by the jerry-builder, the orchards 

 disappear like magic, and "eligible residences" 

 spring up mushroom-like with their few square 

 yards of "gardens front and rear/' changing the 

 old-time paradise with its snug thatched cottage 

 and acre or so of fruit-trees into a howling 

 modernised waste. Fortunately such cases are 

 exceptions, and Devon, we are glad to say, still 



