1550. Animated nature. Deer, wild and tame hares, cattle, sheep, game, singing birds, all belong to a residence, and are necessary to complete its beauty. Pheasants and other game, ranging, undismayed by man, in garden-scenes, give a high idea of seclusion and removal from common nature; the finer sorts may be retained in appropriate structures (fig. 265.), and the common left to themselves, but liberally supplied with food. The cawing of rooks, the shricking of the owl, the screams of peacocks, the notes of birds, are all desirable circumstances in certain situations, and ought to be attended to, by introducing such trees or plants as are favourable to their increase. The smoke of a cottage or a farm-house, the view of a distant village, the spire of a church, a water-mill, or a ruin, all become interesting in certain cases; and, with a thousand other instances of natural expression, in a great measure beyond the reach of art, will be sought for, and turned to account, by the judicious artist.
