As IN THE GARDEN Or F.OEN.
A private correspondent ill a very sprightly letter, puts to me a new conundrum. He has much fruit, and being kind of heart cannot bring himself to destroy the blackbirds that take heavy toll of his strawberries. Ile chooses the better way of netting them, but such is the greed of the birds that many are caught in the nets and he is continually summoned to release them. He finds that the tltieves are exclusively hen blackbirds! Are they greedier, braver, stupider or different in dietetic practice from the cocks ? A little later in the year the birds are apt to segregate into sexes, like the cuckoos and chaffinches ; and flocks of young cocks have been seen migrating front the Kentish seaside. Hens again are certainly tamer than the cocks ; but I cannot say that I have ever noticed their supremacy as eaters of strawberries !
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