FOKESTS PLANTED BY FINCHES. 103 



deep green hue. Scoresby found that this vras owing to 

 the presence of excessively numerous microscopic Medusce. 

 He computes that within the compass of two square 

 miles, supposing these creatures to extend to the depth of 

 two hundred and fifty fathoms, (which, however, is scarcely 

 probable,) there would be congregated together a number 

 which eighty thousand persons, counting incessantly from 

 the creation till now, would not have enumerated, 

 though they worked at the rate of a million a- week ! yet 

 it is calculated that the area occupied by this "'green 

 water" in the Greenland Sea is not less than 20,000 

 square miles. What a union of the small and the great 

 is here ! 



It is little suspected by many how largely small seed- 

 eating animals, and especially birds, contribute to the 

 clothing of the earth with its varied vegetable riches. 

 Peculiar provision is made in many cases for the dissemi- 

 nation of seeds, in their own structure, of which the 

 pappus of the dandelion and the adhesive hooks of the 

 burdock are examples ; but this is largely efi'ected also in 

 the stomachs of birds, the seed being often discharged 

 not only uninjured, but made more ready to germinate 

 by the heat and maceration to which it has been sub- 

 jected. " From trivial causes spring mighty effects : " 

 and the motto has been illustrated by a close observer 

 from this same .subject. " Doubtless many of our most 

 richly wooded landscapes owe much of their timber to the 

 agency of quadrupeds and birds. Linnets, goldfinches, 

 thrushes, goldcrests, &c., feed on the seeds of elms, firs, 



