The ferns and primroses no doubt have been dug up and planted in gardens — 

 mostly (poor prisoners!) to pine and die. Orchids and many plants would perish 

 in the end simply from having their flowers picked. However, let us take comfort 

 in thinking that these bygone flowers were valued. They were " loved not wisely, 

 but too well." They were "killed with much cherishing." Still we have blue- 

 bells galore. This is, perhaps, the most eftective plant in the British flora, since 

 (like the masterful composites) it has comprehended the supreme value of massing 

 (that great qualit)- of generalship), and it is nowhere more at home than on the 

 Coal Measures, where it screws itself deeply down into the ground and defies the 

 root-plunderer. It is pretty to see the children in May with their small arms full 

 of these flowers. 



There are two rather uncommon plants which still remain with us, entirely, fas 

 I think, on account of their (quite artless and unconscious) protective mimicry. 

 These are Allium oleraceii?n, which, growing by the roadside, is not distinguished 

 among the bank-grasses, and I\Iyrrhis odorata, common along the beck, which 

 passes for " Kecksies." If the children had known of its aniseed -flavour I am sure 

 it would have gone long ago. 



SHRUBBERIES BY THE DOVECOTE. 



BIRDS. — If it were not for the common fault (not confined to naturalists) of 

 placing rarity before excellence, we might boast in Farnley of our singing-birds, 

 for nowhere are blackbirds and thrushes more abundant. There is a rookery in the 

 garden of Lawns House and in the trees on the other side of the road, and the birds 

 will feed on the lawn in hard weather and in the breeding-season when domestic 

 duties keep them at home. Wood-pigeons also form a common flock at meal 

 times with their tame cousins, and in the winter a pair of water-hens frequent the 

 shrubberies and feed shyly with the rest. Pheasants nest in the garden and 

 partridges in the field, but the latter are becoming continually more rare. The 

 boundary valley of the parish to the S.W. is called Cockersdale and the inn 

 the IVoodcoik showing the former abundance of that bird for which the ground, 

 were the waters still sweet, is very suitable. In the early spring a pair of magpies 

 usually plunder most of the nests which are then scarcely concealed in the leafless 

 trees. The complete list of the birds observed in Farnley of late years extends to 

 as many as fifty-four species, viz. : 



Sparrow Hawk, Barn Owl, Spotted Flycatcher, Missel Thush, Field Fare, 

 Song Thrush, Blackbird, Ring Ouzel, Hedge Sparrow, Redbreast, Redstart, Stone- 

 chat, Wheatear, Blackcap, Sedge Warbler, Garden Warbler, Willow Warbler, 

 Wood Warbler, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Pied Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, 

 Tree Pipit, Skylark, Woodlark, Yellow Hammer, Chaflinch, House Sparrow, Tree 

 Sparrow, Greenfinch, Goldfinch (very rare), Common Linnet, Bullfinch (very rare), 

 Starling, Rook, Jackdaw, Magpie, Kingfisher (very rare). Swallow, House Martin, 

 Sand Martin, Swift, Wren, Cuckoo, Wood Pigeon, Pheasant, Partridge, Lapwing, 

 Common Heron (once). Woodcock (very rare). Common Snipe, Land Rail, 

 Moorhen. A.H.P. 



