IN SMALL GARDENS. 



11 



no peace for your birds, A small quantity of 

 arsenic, about as much as the point of your 

 penknife will contain, rubbed into a bit of 

 meat either cooked or raw, will do their 

 business effectually* 



" I have often thought of suggesting to the 

 Board of Woods and Forests the idea of 

 feeding the birds, or rather of putting down 

 the different kinds of food proper for the 

 different kinds of singing-birds, in Kensington 

 Gardens." This would not be necessary. All 

 our soft-billed summer birds of passage, and 

 those soft-billed birds that remain with us the 

 year throughout, live on insects ; and insects 

 abound during the period when these birds are 

 in song. But if you could prevail upon the 

 Board to prevent idle boys from chasing them, 

 and gunners from killing them, and bird-mer- 

 chants from catching them, all would be right ; 

 and almost every bush and tree would have its 

 chorister. 



" If you could give any hints as to the next 

 best quadruped to the weasel for keeping in 

 gardens, or, in fact, anything relative to keep- 

 ing down insects, it would be of very great 

 use." — I know of no other quadruped. The 



