We lived _in a garden_ of about two acres,
partly kitchen-garden with walls, partly shrubbery and trees, and partly
grass. There were the _peaches_, as tempting as any that ever grew, and
yet as safe from fingers as if no child were ever in the garden. It was
not necessary to forbid. The blackbirds, the thrushes, the
white-throats, and even that very shy bird the goldfinch had their nests
and bred up their young ones in great abundance, all about this little
spot, constantly the play-place of six children; and one of the latter
had its nest and brought up its young ones in a _raspberry-bush_, within
two yards of a walk, and at the time that we were gathering the ripe
raspberries. We give _dogs, _and justly, great credit for sagacity and
memory; but the following two most curious instances, which I should not
venture to state, if there were not so many witnesses to the facts, in
my neighbours at Botley, as well as in my own family, will show, that
_birds_ are not, in this respect, inferior to the canine race. All
country people know that the skylark is a very shy bird; that its abode
is the open fields; that it settles on the ground only; that it seeks
safety in the wideness of space; that it avoids enclosures, and is never
seen in gardens. A part of our ground was a grass-plot of about _forty
rods,_ or a quarter of an acre, which, one year, was left to be mowed
for hay.
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