BIEDS AROUND OUR DWELLINGS. 147 



bird, which is hardly less familiar, delights in the hollow 

 branch of an old tree in the orchard, but would be 

 equally satisfied with an artificial imitation of the rude 

 conveniences supplied him by nature. 



If we observe all these requirements, when employed 

 in tilling a farm or in laying out a country-seat, we do 

 but avoid the destruction of those beautiful relations 

 which nature has established throughout the earth. 

 The plough and the scythe may do their work for man, 

 without interfering with the wants of those creatures 

 whom nature has appointed as the enliveners of his 

 toil. Every estate might be made to repi-esent the 

 whole country, in its tilled fields and cultivated lawn, 

 with their proper admixture of forest, thicket, and primi- 

 tive herbage. Then, while sitting at. our windows, the 

 eye would be delighted b)' the sight of little coppices 

 of wild shrubbery, with their undergrowth of mosses, 

 ferns, and Christmas evergreens, rising in the midst of 

 the smooth lawn, and in charming opposition to the 

 flower beds, that are distributed in other parts of the 

 ground. In these miniature wilds, the small birds 

 would find a shelter, suited to all their wants and in- 

 stincts, and in return for our hospitality, would act as 

 the sentinels of our orchards and gardens, and the 

 musicians to attend us in our daily labor and recrea- 

 tions. 



