60 
BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
must come from those who do not dig and sweat, 
but sit still and work with their brains at new 
ideas. 
Thus ended our conversation, and I left him more 
than satisfied at the information he had given me, 
and with a higher opinion than ever of his geniality 
and good practical sense. 
It was a relief when the noisy, bird-scaring 
business was done with, and the last market 
baskets of ripe cherries wer^ carried away to the 
station. Very splendid they looked in such large 
masses of crimson, as the baskets were brought out 
and set down in the grassy road ; but I could not 
help thinking a little sadly that the thrushes and 
blackbirds which had been surreptitiously shot, 
when fallen and fluttering in the wet grass in the 
early morning, had shed life-drops of that same 
beautiful colour. 
After the middle of June the common began to 
attract me more and more. It was so extensive 
that, standing on its border, just beyond the last 
straggling cottages and orchards, the further side 
was seen only as a line of blue trees, indistinct in 
the distance. As I grew to know it better, adding 
each day to my list from its varied bird life, the 
woods and waterside were visited less and less 
frequently, and after the bird-scaring noises began 
