84 A MIDLAND tillage: gakden astd meadow. 



hairs, wHeli act like the baekwar-d-^hent teeth of the pike in pre- 

 venting the escape erf the prey. 



Our village is so placed, that all the birds that nest m our 

 gardens and orchards have easy and immediate access to a 

 variety of feeding^grounds. From my window, as I write, I look 

 over the village allotments, where all kinds of birds can be 

 supplied with what they need, whether they be grai»-eating 

 or ^nit-eating; here come the Kookg, from the rookOTy eiose 

 by, and quite unconscious of my presence behind the 

 window, and regardless of the carcasses of former eomrgdes 

 which swing on some of the allotments, they turn out the grubs 

 with those featherless white bills which are still as great 

 a mystery as the serrated claw of the Nightjar. Here also com© 

 the Wood-pigeons and in late summer the Turtle-doves— far 

 worse enemies to the cottager than the rooks; here all the 

 common herd of Blackbirds, Thrushes, SpaiTows, ChafiSnehes, and 

 Greenfinches, help to clear the gromng v€getables of crawling 

 pests at the rate of hundreds and thousands a day, yet the owners 

 of the allotments have been accustomed since their childhood 

 to destroy every winged thing that comes within their cruel 

 reach. Short-sighted, unobservant as they are, they decline to 

 be instructed on matters of which they know very little, but 

 stick to what they know like limpets. For my part, I decline 

 to protect my gooseberries and currants from the birds ; their 

 ravages are grossly exaggerated, and what they get I do not 

 grudge them, considering their services during the rest of the 

 year. 



Beyond the allotments the ground falls to the brook which I 



