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 company frequently with the rooks; active, in * Except the grey wagtail. quisitive, 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 variety) glistened with beautiful tints of red, 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. 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 flock contains as many foreigners as natives: no prejudice prevents them from taking their meals * 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. together, without rivalry or dispute. The mountain finch has a beautiful plumage; the mottling of bright bay and black is singularly elegant. An accurate and highly finished coloured print of this little visiter (often overlooked, though not uncommon,) will be found in Donovan's British Birds. 9 CHAP. II. SUMMER VISITERS. LET us turn to our summer visiters. They come to us in the spring, as the weather becomes warmer, the earth clothed with vegetation, and the air and surface of the ground begin to teem with insect life: when the chrysalis bursts its case, the worm, and slug, and caterpillar, "and every creeping thing after his kind," come forth; then appear, led by an unseen hand, myriads of soft-billed warblers from distant lands, formed to thin the insect race, and whose services warmly deserve our gratitude and protection. From March till May ten thousand busy pinions ply the air, by day and night, and bring these melodious visiters from all the southern countries, where the parching heat at this season renders their food difficult to procure. As they arrive, they disperse throughout the country, 'They to their grassy couch, these to their nests." Each grove and shrubbery, each "bosky dell from side to side," each heath and upland com |