During the last era of prosperous farming there was a mania for destroying
hedges and cutting down the timber. If ever prosperity returns it will
smile on a better-informed class of occupier and owner. It is now seen
that the hedges were of the greatest value to shelter cattle, sheep, and
horses, and benefited to some extent even the sown crops, especially at
the blossoming time. As cattle are now the farmer's main reliance, it will
be long before he grubs up or destroys the welcome shelter given by the
hedges from sun, rain, and storm.
THE ENGLISH MOCKING BIRD
One winter an unusual number of peewits visited the flats near Wittenham
and Burcote, and remained there for several months. One or two starlings
which haunted the house in which we stayed, and slept in their old holes
in the thatch, picked up all the various peewits' calls and notes, and
used to amuse themselves by repeating these in the apple-trees on sunny
mornings. The note was so exact a reproduction that I often looked up to
see where the plover was before I made out that it was only the starling's
mimicry.
A correspondent of the _Newcastle Journal_, writing from Yeare, near
Wooler, in Northumberland, recently described the performances of a wild
starling which has settled near his house.
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