4 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



wood sheaf" that springs from the bole at that 

 distance from the roots* The wood-pigeons were 

 much more numerous, also more eager to be fed. 

 They seemed to understand very quickly that my 

 bread and grain was for them and not the sparrows ; 

 but although they stationed themselves close to me, 

 the little robbers we were jointly trying to outwit 

 managed to get some pieces of bread by flying up 

 and catching them before they touched the sward. 

 This little comedy over, I visited the water-fowl, 

 ducks of many kinds, sheldrakes, geese from many 

 lands, swans black and swans white. To see birds 

 in prison during the spring mood of which I have 

 spoken is not only no satisfaction but a positive pain ; 

 here, albeit without that large liberty that nature 

 gives, they are free in a measure ; and swimming 

 and diving or dosing in the sunshine, with the blue 

 sky above them, they are perhaps unconscious of 

 any restraint. Walking along the margin I noticed 

 three children some yards ahead of me ; two were 

 quite small, but the third, in whose charge the 

 others were, was a robust-looking girl aged about 

 ten or eleven years. From their dress and appear- 

 ance I took them to be the children of a respect- 

 able artisan or small tradesman ; but what chiefly 

 attracted my attention was the very great pleasure 

 the elder girl appeared to take in the birds. She had 

 come well provided with stale bread to feed them, 



