4 Birds that come to our 



well as sweet peas in gay successive lines from June 

 to October — a summer bright and lovely with all 

 its depth of foliage, its skies of unclouded blueness 

 and cloudland too, its fiery sunsets, its refreshing rains 

 — a summer which is not altogether perfect without 

 the wondrous procession of flowers and birds. In 

 the borders the oriental poppies, the snapdragons, 

 penstemons, daisies, hollyhocks, dahlias, and many 

 another to swell the host of beauties. In the shrub- 

 beries and creepers the young of birds that flutter 

 with stumpy tails and clamouring voices out of the 

 nests, to swell the chorus of a future spring. 



It is not very long before the flycatcher has been 

 joined by his mate ; neither does it seem but a week 

 (so quickly do the days pass by) when one of the small 

 brown fellows is seen to dart out from among the 

 wistaria stems, that have twisted and twined over the 

 porch of the front door. Very confiding of them to 

 have built that lovely nest so close to one of the hall 

 windows, but very unconfiding of the builder to feel 

 that every time one passes in and out she is constrained 

 to flit silently away, darting downwards across the 

 gravelled terrace so closely that she surely fans the 

 ground which is baking in the sunshine. But she 

 will gain confidence, or at any rate courage, as she 

 feels that those chestnut-spotted eggs are near to chip- 

 ping. I have looked into the nest to-day, pushing 

 aside the leaves as I leant out of the window. Lazy 

 little flycatchers ! The wall against which you have 

 partly built it all but does duty for one side, so frail 

 is the gathering of moss just there. But you wisely 



