Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
look a whit the worse. The Tulip has been said to be a 
flower without a soul j but of the small size, pale pink and 
yellow ones, I think this is scarcely true, though the Giant 
Greigi and others are rather coarse-looking and soulless, 
perhaps. The birds are beginning to nest. There is a black- 
bird’s nest in a laurel-bush. Merle they call him here, and 
Garden Ousel. The Welsh name for a blackbird is rather nice 
— Goldbeak (Pig felyn). I am sure there is a starling’s nest 
in the ivy just above my bedroom window. A starling preens 
his speckled beauty daily on the little balcony ; indeed, one 
day, when the window was very wide open, he investigated 
the bedroom. I wonder what he thought of it ! I was 
interested the other day to learn that starlings are largely 
exported to America as cage-birds ; I suppose, on account 
of their talking capabilities. 
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