. My garden in summer . nsects in or round it, and the others of that interestingarchipelago reversed, where the sandy flat represents thesea, and is dotted with meres instead of islands. It hasgrown well here, although there are no Crested Grebes tonest in it, as at Wretham, nor Coots, Tufted Ducks, orMergansers, and the many other jolly birds I have so oftenwatched scuttering into its thick tufts for hiding. Here,instead, it gives a home to many a brood of baby Moor-hens, and when we cut it down in the Spring cleaning weleave a central tuft for the first nest of the season, therebysaving the
. My garden in summer . nsects in or round it, and the others of that interestingarchipelago reversed, where the sandy flat represents thesea, and is dotted with meres instead of islands. It hasgrown well here, although there are no Crested Grebes tonest in it, as at Wretham, nor Coots, Tufted Ducks, orMergansers, and the many other jolly birds I have so oftenwatched scuttering into its thick tufts for hiding. Here,instead, it gives a home to many a brood of baby Moor-hens, and when we cut it down in the Spring cleaning weleave a central tuft for the first nest of the season, therebysaving the marginal tufts of Leucojum aesHvum or L. Her-nandezii from being seized upon to shelter it. I haveheard Moorhens accused of evil deeds among choiceflowers in gardens, but have never yet directly traced anydamage to their sealing-wax bills, so I encourage them toflirt their white tails and scatter across the water and cry meeyoop as much as they please in this garden. I was very nearly annoyed with them, though, one 158. Aquatics season, when a heavy rain lasted for some days, andbrooks were flooding the meadows. Instinct taught theMoorhens that the water in the pond ought to rise too, sothey added two stories to their nest in a great hurry, andpiled it up with the tender green leaves of my JapaneseIrises. But I thought it so clever and provident of them,and so greatly admired the extraordinary effect of theupper two-thirds of the nest being composed of brightgreen Iris leaves while the lower third was of the usualdead sticks and Scirpus stems, that I found it easy toforgive them. Water-voles are quite another matter, andare condemned to be shot or trapped as soon as possiblewhen discovered. They chewed down a fine Phormiumtenax once in Winter, and will chop up good plants intobundles of sham Asparagus. Last year one barked severalWillows and other shrubs to get fibre for a Winter , they have such an unpleasant habit of runningalong the margin and beating their path
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectfloriculture, bookyea
