270 On the Physical and Geographical Distribution 



sidered ; many other species might be named as seen upon 

 the trees. On the banks, a few yards distant, fine Portugal 

 laurels tempted the greenfinch to take up its permanent resi- 

 dence, and served as a nest during the winter for many hun- 

 dred linnets, which made known the place of their choice, by 

 congregating in some fine tall poplars that towered above 

 the shrubs, and thence poured forth their evening jubilee. 



To name all the birds that cultivation, the erection of 

 houses,* the plantation of trees and shrubs, together with 

 the attraction of a garden, brought to the place, would be 

 tedious. It will, therefore, only be further observed, that 

 the beautiful goldfinch, so long as a neighbouring hill-side 

 was covered with thistles and other plants, on the seeds of 

 of which it fed, visited the standard cherry-trees to nidify ; 

 and the spotted fly-catcher, which particularly delights in 

 pleasure-grounds and gardens, annually spent the summer 

 there. Of the six species of British Merulidce, the resident 

 missel and song-thrushes, and the blackbird, inhabited the 

 place ; the fieldfare and redwing, winter visitants, were to 

 be seen in their season ; and the ring-ouzel, annually during 

 summer, frequented an adjacent rocky glen ; curlews, on 

 their way from the sea to the mountain-moor, occasionally 

 alighted in the pasture-fields. The entire number of species 

 seen at this place (seventy-five English acres in extent), was 

 seventy ; forty-one or forty- two of which bred there. A few 

 others, — the kestrel, ring-ouzel, sand-martin, and quail, — 

 built in the immediate neighbourhood. 



Nearly seventy species have been noticed in Kensington 

 Gardens, London. "f White remarks, that Selborne parish 

 alone has exhibited at times (120 species) more than half 

 the birds that are ever seen in all Sweden. The parish com- 

 prises an extent of thirty miles in circumference ; and where 

 else, within the same inland area, should we hope to find so 



* Including houses in the category may seem inadvertent. But the house- 

 martin annually built about the windows or under the roof of the dwelling- 

 house ; as the sparrows did in the spouts ; the swallow against the rafter of 

 sheds, and the swift in apertures at the caves ; the thrush, redbreast, and wren 

 also occasionally nidified in the outhouses. 



t Yarrell. 



