A GARDEN POND 273 



Among the thirstiest of creatures are bees. In the 

 spring of this year, because the bullfinches were eating 

 the buds (especially of gooseberry and, oddly enough, of 

 Forsythia), the gardener put out little saucers of water. 

 They were ringed every day with hive-bees drinking 

 greedily. This garden pond has attracted, as you would 

 expect, a number of the hymenopterous tribe, especially 

 queens, and among them a hornet or two, an insect that 

 had not before been seen in the garden or, so far as is 

 known, in the neighbourhood, for its species grows rarer 

 and rarer. A good entomologist can draw bees and 

 wasps, real or bogus flies, butterflies and hover-flies, 

 beetles and even spiders, by providing congenial flowers, 

 such as Buddleia variabilis, Sedum spectabile, mauve 

 michaelmas daisies, the dusky geranium, tobacco plant, 

 valerian, and ivy ; but perhaps some even of the special 

 ists forget how regular an attraction is just water. 



The pond was meant for birds. The tortoise, squirrel, 

 hedgehog, hares, rabbits, hornets, flies and butterflies, 

 are in the nature of an unearned or, at any rate, unpre 

 meditated increment. And the birds have gathered to 

 their proper pond, daily and in numbers, as was confi 

 dently expected, for the garden is a favourite of birds, as, 

 indeed, is the house, where robins, at any rate, make 

 themselves thoroughly at home, especially at breakfast 

 time. Yet the birds, too, have given surprises. The 

 common or garden birds hedge-sparrows, bullfinches, 

 starlings, thrushes, and the rest come, of course, both to 

 drink and bathe ; and most people with bird-tables and 

 the like think in terms of the smaller birds as sportsmen 

 and travellers think in terms of big birds ; and many 

 more big birds than were expected have enjoyed their 

 dip on the lawn pigeons, jays, and even magpies are 

 duly chronicled in the Census of the Pond. 



S T.V.E. 



