56 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



may such a varied assemblage of birds be found ; 

 in some districts other species might occur : 

 but sufficient, we think, has been said to indicate 

 the avine wealth of the gardens of Devonshire. 



The bird-life of the orchards may somewhat 

 closely resemble that of the gardens in its general 

 aspects, but we meet with a few additional species, 

 and the shyer birds especially are more liberally 

 represented. , In no part of the kingdom are the 

 orchards more genuinely picturesque ; the gnarled 

 old fruit-trees are festooned with lichens and 

 garnished with moss, the herbage is long and 

 generous, the surrounding hedge-rows are literally 

 thickets of trailing brambles and briars through 

 which the growth of elm and sycamore and thorn 

 often penetrates with difficulty. No wonder that 

 such arboreal spots, little disturbed by man except 

 during the fruit season, are the favoured haunt of 

 birds. The bird-life of an orchard depends a good 

 deal upon its general situation. Some orchards 

 surround or adjoin cottages and farmsteads, others 

 the highways and lanes, others yet again are situ- 

 ated in the fields, sometimes near to woods, and 

 remote from houses or buildings. In some of 

 these outlying orchards, Crows, Magpies, and Jays 



