170 MOSTLY ABOUT TROUT 



public life to be shunned for having, rightly 

 or wrongly, acquired a similar reputation in 

 their dealings with other folk of their own kind. 

 I do not hesitate to mention this, because I 

 have placed myself in the same category by 

 giving the above list of bird-visitors, drawn up 

 for me by a friend, who must have expended 

 much trouble in its compilation. The list is 

 of those who do not breed with us, so I have 

 at all events kept my promise to him not to 

 encourage pre-natal bird-murder, known as 

 amateur egg-collecting. 



After the blue-tits and cole-tits, my favourite 

 amongst the bird-companions who venture close 

 enough to my study-table to be intimately 

 acquainted is a wren, always an attractive, 

 busy-looking little person, with the wonderful 

 trick of flying full-speed to within an inch or 

 so of a solid trunk or an ivy-clad wall and 

 alighting thereon as softly as thistledown. 

 Next comes the old friend of our childhood, 

 cock-robin, the boldest of all, especially if he 

 finds you digging in the garden and likely to 

 turn up something to his advantage. The only 

 others that come near the window are sparrows 

 and starlings, both reminiscent of a youth 

 spent in towns, where I remember my first 

 view, as a boy, of a starling that was attracted 



