PIED FLYCATCHER 



CHAPTER I 



BIRDS THAT COME TO OUR HOUSES 

 AND GARDENS 



" If you are not inclined to look at the wings of birds, which 

 God has given you to handle and see, much less are you to con- 

 template or draw imaginations of the wings of angels, which you 

 can't see " — Riiskin. 



BIRDS are such confiding things. They do not 

 mind any noise and turmoil, so long as they 

 feel that they themselves are unmolested. 

 There they are, not only on the broad stretches of 

 emerald lawns that lie secluded in the grounds of 

 some " ancestral home," but even the row of villas 

 with their humble patch of garden front can claim 



