A GARDEN DIARY 97 
eatable or not. They preferred, in fact, not to do 
so; in ¢hezr family, they practically sent me word, 
they never ate victuals that had not been selected 
by themselves; other people might do so, and 
they had heard that sparrows were less particular, 
but it had never been ¢hezy custom. I felt—as 
anyone would feel under the circumstances! To- 
day for the first time, thanks to the friendly 
connivance of the snow, this fastidiousness has 
broken down. With elation I perceive my dis- 
dainful blue neighbours, not only pecking at, but 
actually sitting and swinging in the long-despised 
brown rings. I am trying to bear my triumph 
meekly, and am helped towards doing so by 
reminding myself of the well-known fact that in 
times of stress and famine social distinctions 
are apt to break down. I shall have to wait 
till the weather relaxes to see whether this 
amiability is anything more than a truce, born 
of the hour of trouble, and not intended to last 
beyond it. 
We are apt to talk as if the hyperborean con- 
ditions were no concern of ours, yet, as Alphonse 
Karr long ago remarked, we have only to sit 
still to find that these, and most other extremes 
of climate have come round to us. It was the 
tropical or sub-tropical regions of the globe that 
not long ago were good enough to send us 
specimens of their weather, as enterprising trades- 
people enclose samples of their goods in envelopes. 
H 
