A Nesting Tribute On the subject of vegetables there is
a useful plant, generally known as asparagus-kale, which should be more freely grown ; but I write of it not chiefly for its dietetic virtues. In the midst of a plant—indicating its robust and ample proportions—a hedge sparrow built its nest and successfully brought off her brood. Though one expects the unexpected in nesting sites, this was no little surprise fur the vegetable-gatherer. The concealment was perfect and needed to be, for I saw a pair of red-backed shrikes in the same patch of Cumberland garden. The chaftinch, perhaps because it is now the commonest of all birds (more numerous even than the sparrow, now rare in many country places), is singularly catholic in its choice of sites. A pair, for example, chose a not very lusty raspberry bush within .a cage in my garden. Larks, in my experience, show a peculiar fondness for the edges of golf-greens and partridges for the underneath of rosemary bushes.
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