extermination is often carried on against the feathered race-whether hard-billed birds, who devour grain; or soft-billed birds, who destroy gnats. A very slight knowledge of their structure and habits would have saved from destruction almost all the warblers who delight us with their song.

Perhaps, if we take a short view of our common birds, beginning with the missel thrush, the largest British songster, and coming down to the golden-crested wren, it may repay our trouble.

Within these limits we shall find about seventy birds, varying in size, form, habits, structure, and note; most of which are seen, at one or other time of the year, in the fields and woods which surround our dwellings, and many them are constantly with us.

of

They may be divided into hard-billed birds, feeding on grain, seeds, and fruits; and softbilled birds, on insects and worms. Some feed on both; and many grain-eaters devour insects, though few of the soft-billed eat seeds. These are again divided into families, from some peculiarity in their formation (chiefly the beak); as the finches, buntings, warblers, &c. It is not our intention to enter into a description of their specific differences: any person who wishes to do so, with Bewick's British Birds, and Mon

tagu's Ornithological Dictionary*, may easily become acquainted with them; and, if to these he adds that delightful little work, White's History of Selborne, will have store of amusement and instruction.

In considering the birds to which we have confined our view, we find they divide themselves into three sets-winter visiters, summer visiters, and sojourners.

The smaller winter visiters, about five in number, come to our hospitable shores in autumn, and leave us in the spring. They all come from colder climates; and as the frost locks up their sources of subsistence in the north (where, in the summer, they have built their nests and reared their young), led by that wonderful instinct which their Maker has implanted, they direct their airy flight across the mountain and the flood.

The summer visiters, on the other hand, coming to us in the spring, and leaving us in the autumn, all come from the south and de

* Mr. Selby has lately published an excellent work on this subject; and Knapp's "Journal of a Naturalist” 1S a pleasant appendix to White's "Selborne."

The summer and winter visiters have been called, by Mr. Selby and others, polar and equatorial migrants. At the end we insert a systematic catalogue of all those birds within our limits.

FIELDFARE

REDWING. STARLING.

5

part again to the regions of the sun as winter approaches.

The winter visiters are all hard-billed birds, fitted to feed on seeds, berries, and fruits found during our winters. They are chiefly gregarious, and seem by their numbers to band themselves together against the piercing season!

Led by the FIELDFARE (a large and handsome thrush, whose chatter we sometimes hear so high above us that we can scarcely discern the aërial traveller), from Sweden, Norway, and the bleak North, by thousands come together our feathered guests.

The REDWING (scarcely to be distinguished by a careless observer from our common song thrush) comes about the same time. These two birds are often seen in society, feeding on the same kinds of food, frequenting hawthorn trees and ivy bushes, and animating our lawns and meadows as they spread themselves over the fields in search of food. The redwing's provincial name of swine-pipe is taken from a singular note he has a sort of inward deepdrawn sigh, like an attempt at ventriloquism.

The STARLINGS (Sterne's bird, crest, and namesake), some of whom breed here, and many in Holland, assemble in large flocks, keeping

Except the grey wagtail.

company frequently with the rooks; active, inquisitive, running here and there; distinct from all other birds in habit and appearance. Those who dwell near large waters may watch them in the evening coming from all quarters to roost upon the reeds. At first one flock, "another, and another, and another," succeed, joining the main body, who keep wheeling about in the air with great velocity (the beating of their wings may be heard a considerable distance); till at length, as the obscurity increases, they descend in parties to their chill, but safe, resting-place! *

There are not, besides those mentioned, more than three or four winter visiters among the birds we are now noticing, and they appear rather irregularly and locally. The CROSSBILL sometimes appears in considerable numbers, frequenting fir and larch trees, whose cones he opens for their seeds.+

This beautiful bird visits us, perhaps, but once in several years, and remains for a short time. We once watched three or four on a larch tree, with a pocket telescope; the sun shone brightly, and their plumage (each has

Some amusing remarks on the habits of the starling in the "Journal of a Naturalist," p. 200.

+ Is also called the shell-apple, and accused of dividing the apple to get at the seeds.

some variety) glistened with beautiful tints of red, copper-coloured, and green: hanging by the claws, sometimes with the head downwards, and sometimes drawing themselves up by the beak (with which they take hold), they well deserve one of their names, "The German parrot." The grosbeak, known by its coarse, powerful bill, sometimes visits us. The SNOW BUNTING, partially, or wholly, clad in its pure snow-white mantle, is occasionally seen, in very severe winters, in the society of larks or other birds.*

This hardy inmate of the frozen north is found in the highest northern latitudes, nearer the pole than any other of the feathered tribe, and appears to be the only living being that visits the severest region of perpetual snow.+

The MOUNTAIN FINCH, an elegant species, not unfrequently in cold weather visits our fields, and appears fond of beech trees. Often found in society with one of our common sojourners, the chaffinch (named also, from its attachment to beeches, the beech finch). The mingled

* V. White, letter 26.

+ V. Franklin's Journey. Linnæus's Tour in Lapland, vol. ii. p. 282. Wilson's amusing account of the Snow Bunting, vol. ii. p. 221. 223.; iv. 319. Within the arctic circle the grasses are numerous, and retain their seeds through the winter, and thus furnish nourishment for the birds which arrive on the melting of the snow.

tophanes,