114 Up in the Morning Early. 



from human habitations, will now probably surprise 

 you by the piercing, penetrating, steely vibration of 

 their little voices, as they welcome in the day ; and 

 would even seem to have been studying over night how 

 they could be most sharp and resonant in their notes 

 this morning. I have sometimes lain in bed and 

 listened to their chattering, so continuous and intense, 

 till a sort of painful smart shot through the brain, when 

 I would jump up and clothe myself and go outside to 

 escape its keen and unrelieved monotony. A row of 

 lime trees right in front of our house was a favourite 

 resort of theirs; and I confess we were so much of 

 bird lovers and so sentimental as to object to any 

 effort to take down their nests or drive them away, 

 till it became in the way just said, simply unbearable 

 by light sleepers and lovers of open windows like 

 ourselves, when we compromised the matter and had 

 their nests thinned out ; but this seemed to make no 

 perceptible difference to the ceaseless shrill of bird- 

 voices close by our windows early in the morning. 



Our friendly protection of the birds in our small 

 domain was carried on with open eyes so far as the 

 amiable delusions of the Rev. J. G. Wood are con- 

 cerned. He really, in some cases, carried his senti- 

 ment too far. "I should report untruly if I said that 

 thrushes and blackbirds shameless vagabonds that 

 they are, in spite of their sweet voices will not 

 delectate themselves on your strawberries early in 

 the summer mornings if you do not have them well 

 netted or protected, or that several other birds won't 

 visit, and speedily thin out, your mayduke and bigar- 

 reau and white-heart cherries. The truth is, there 

 are certain things certain birds will have, and these 

 are always the finest, too ; and you must protect them 



