THE FRIENDLY PIPIT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 105, 3 January 1940, Page 3

THE FRIENDLY PIPIT

MR H. GUTHRIE-SMITH'S

TRIBUTE

Probably nobody in New Zealand would be more grieved than Mr H. Guthric-Smith, of Tutira, by the news that Australian magpies harry the native lark, the friendly pipit, "In "Birds in the Wood, Water and Waste," Mr H. Guthrio-Smith pays pleasant tribute to the point He will do his share in garden work the author writes, "keeping just out of hoe and rake reach, and picking up with short, deft runs, the white, soft, sleepy disinterred larvae on the green beetle. Often and often when gardening have I had one 01 two of these cheerful little companions, quite friendly but never overbold, and always wearing that veil of shyness so peculiarly their own. Never would the Ground Lark wear the abstracted, distrait look of ai. English Robin, never would he be guiity of such discourtesy as to sit. as does the Red-breast, like a stone, until he darts on his worm, showing thereby that the Avorm and not your companion is his real object. My little brown friend would never do that: each o*' us gives a happiest interpretation of the other's presence. Though incidentally the turn-ed-over soil may be used later tor other purposes. I am there now, the Pipit persuades himself, to provide him those soft-shelled grubs, as white and pathetically helpless as babiey. Seeing me lonely at my work, I know he wishes me to believe that he has arrived with his cheerful chirp and ceaseless runs and flutterings, to charm the solitude, make the sun brighter, and the sky more blue. Mutual courtesy is always observed, on my part no too quick motion or sudden throwing down of tools; on his, an exit lingering and reluctant, for his departure, too, is like him, little runs and pauses that carry him further and further, as if breaking the sorrow to me, and when at last he is no longer there I realise the old French proverb and know that of the two parties in our affection it is I who have given my heart whilst the bird only consents to be loved. He is gone, and part of the morning brightness with him."