68 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



just to look at it, and a wonderful sight it was. For 

 a quarter of a mile this particular orchard ran 

 parallel with the wood, with nothing but the green 

 road between, and when the first fruit was ripening 

 you could see all the big trees on the edge of the 

 wood swarming with birds — ^jays, thrushes, black- 

 birds, doves, and all sorts of tits and little birds, 

 just waiting for a chance to pounce down and devour 

 the cherries. The noise kept them off, but many 

 would dodge in, and even if a gun was fired close 

 to them the blackbirds would snatch a cherry and 

 carry it off to the wood. That didn't matter — a few 

 cherries here and there didn't count. The starlings 

 were the worst robbers : if you didn't scare them 

 they would strip a tree and even an orchard in a few 

 hours. But they were the easiest birds to deal with : 

 they went in flocks, and a shout or rattle or report 

 of a gim sent the lot of them away together. His 

 way of looking at it was this. In the fruit season, 

 which lasts only a few weeks, you are boimd to 

 suffer from the attacks of birds, whether they are 

 your own birds only or your own combined with 

 others from outside, unless you keep them off; 

 that those who do not keep them off are foolish or 

 indolent, and deserve to suffer. The fruit season 

 was, he said, always an anxious time. 



In conclusion, I remarked that the means used for 

 protecting the fruit, whether they served their pur- 



