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BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
us, but even in our house. The robin, the little 
bird " with the red stomacher," would be there for 
the customary crumbs at meal-time, and many- 
dainty fringilline pensioners would keep him 
company. And the wren would be there, search- 
ing diligently in the dusty angles of cornices for a 
savoury morsel; for it knows, this wise little 
Kitty Wren, that " the spider taketh hold with her 
hands, and is in king's palaces ; " and wandering 
from room to room it would pour forth many a 
gushing lyric — a sound of wildness and joy in our 
still interiors, eternal Nature's message to our 
hearts. 
Who delights not in a bird ? Yet how few 
among us find any pleasure in reading of them in 
natural history books ! The living bird, viewed 
closely and fearless of our presence, is so much 
more to the mind than all that is written — so 
infinitely more engaging in its spontaneous glad- 
ness, its brilliant vivacity, and its motions so swift 
and true and yet so graceful ! Even leaving out 
the melody, what a charm it would add to our 
homes if birds were permitted to take the part 
there for which Nature designed them — if they 
were the " winged wardens " of our gardens and 
houses as well as of our fields. Bird-biographies 
are always in our bookcases; and the bird-form 
meets our sight everywhere in decorative art 
