“If the gardener only knew how much they help him, by eating up the grubs and beetles that damage his plants, he would not grudge them a few seeds and berries, Frank,” Uncle George replied. “The rook is one of the farmer’s best friends; and if it were not for thrushes, starlings, blackbirds, and such insect-eating birds, our gardens would be overrun with insects. If these insects were allowed to increase, we should not be able to grow anything. Even the sparrow is the gardener’s friend. He eats the caterpillars that would spoil our fruit trees and bushes.” Exercises on Lesson II. 1. Why do we put out suet and scraps of meat for certain birds in winter? 2. How can you tell a flesh-eating from an insect-eating bird? 3. Write down the names of all the birds which belong to the crow family. 4. What makes the jackdaw steal all his food? 5. Why are jackdaws, rooks, sparrows, starlings, and blackbirds said to be “the farmer’s friends”? III.—BUDS. Uncle George and the two boys had been for a long walk. They brought home a lot of twigs which they had cut from trees at the roadside. Uncle George placed some of these twigs in bottles filled with water. These bottles were placed in the window, so that they could get plenty of sunlight. The rest of the twigs were laid upon the table. “Now, boys,” said Uncle George, “we are going to find out what buds are. Here is a twig of the horse-chestnut tree, and here is one of the beech tree. Do you notice any difference between them?” “Oh, yes,” said Frank, “they are very different. The beech buds are longer.” “Anything else?” his uncle asked. “The horse-chestnut buds have sticky stuff all over them,” said Tom. “Quite right,” said Uncle George. “On the beech twig the buds are placed singly on opposite sides. On the horse-chestnut twig the buds are in pairs.” Then Uncle George cut one of the buds through with his knife, and they saw that a great number of thick scales were folded round a little green thing in the centre. They saw also a mass of woolly stuff between the scales and the little green object. Uncle George gave each of the boys a twig, and showed them how to take the scales off the top bud with a large needle. The outside scales were not easily removed. They were so sticky—they stuck to everything that touched them, and soon the boys’ fingers were covered with the sticky stuff. As they went on with their work, they found out that the inner scales were not sticky. At last they got all the scales off, and there was nothing left but a tiny woolly mass. On teasing out, this woolly bundle was found to be a little branch bearing small leaves. Every part of it was covered with wool. [Illustration: Twigs of Beech and Chestnut, showing Buds.] “Now,” said Uncle George, “you can perhaps tell me what a bud is.”