448 
BIRD-LIFE. 
coldest and most apathetic mind, and will not fail to 
awaken feeling’s eldest daughter—gratitude. 
It is the grateful man who first thinks of fixing a 
wheel on the roof-ridge of his house for the Stork to 
build on; it is he who nails the boards for the Swallows, 
under those cornices of his house which are sheltered 
from the north; it is he who hangs up the Starling’s box 
in the lime tree that overhangs the cottage, and who 
knocks together little boxes, and nails them up against 
the trees, for the benefit of other small birds breeding in 
holes, whose services are invaluable,—or enlarges the holes 
in decayed timber; it is the grateful man who plants a thick 
thorn-hedge in some quiet corner of the garden, where, 
when it has grown up, future generations of Warblers 
may hide their nests from view; it is he who spreads a 
table in winter for the granivorous birds. Hospitality 
brings its pleasures, hut also its cares. The true host 
loves his guests, and shelters them from danger against 
every enemy, trick, or trap: like the stranger who 
takes shelter in the tent of the wandering Arab; or 
the Ibis, honoured of yore by the people and priesthood 
of Egypt; the trustful bird is safe against intrusion or 
attack. Woe betide the man who would insult or 
injure it; woe to his family and to his house. Accursed 
is he who would disturb a Swallow’s nest. Such a one is 
a godless, unfeeling man in the eyes of the kind-hearted, 
and also a miserable being: this is the result of the 
curse. The Starling is not robbed of its young by a 
soi-disant friend for the sake of their being converted into 
a pudding; the nests of Titmice, Whitethroats, and Chaf¬ 
finches, are carefully hunted for in the garden, not for the 
purpose of being taken, but, on the contrary, so as to be 
able to fence them in with a few strong thorns to defend 
