XV Countrymen's Nature Lore 



SYSTEMATIZED knowledge can hardly be accumu- 

 lated without books. The rustic, who deals little 

 with books, has still much the same confused and 

 partial views of natural history which his fathers 

 held. It is curious how few species of birds and 

 even of animals are known to most of the labouring 

 men who pass their lives among them. The rustic 

 generally knows the difference between swallows 

 and house-martins, which many more instructed 

 people do not ; and to him the sight of the first 

 swallow and the cry of the first cuckoo are welcome 

 landmarks in the year. The robin and the wren, 

 too, he knows well, and often regards them with a 

 touch of affection dating from the days when they 

 were " God's cock and hen." He also distinguishes 

 the two kinds of thrushes, and knows all the common 

 finches, two or three of the titmice, the hedge- 

 sparrow, the starling, and a few more of the common 

 garden birds. Nor does he lack clear views about 

 the house-sparrow. But he knows nothing of the 

 tree-sparrow, which is often overlooked and mis- 

 taken for its wickeder brother by persons who know 

 that it exists ; and his views on smaller summer 

 migrants which naturalists roughly group as " warb- 

 lers," and the French call fauvettes, are confused 

 and partial. 



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