192 WINTER BIRDS ABOUT BOSTON. 



primrose so extensively. This plant, like the 

 succory, is of an ungraceful aspect ; yet it has 

 sweet and beautiful blossoms, and as an herb 

 bearing seed is in the front rank. I doubt 

 whether we have any that surpass it, the birds 

 being judges. 



Many stories are told of the red-polls' fear- 

 lessness and ready reconciliation to captivity, 

 as well as of their constancy to each other. I 

 have myself stood still in the midst of a flock, 

 until they were feeding round my feet so closely 

 that it looked easy enough to catch one or two 

 of them with a butterfly net. Strange that 

 creatures so gentle and seemingly so delicately 

 organized should choose to live in the regions 

 about the North Pole ! Why should they pre- 

 fer Labrador and Greenland, Iceland and Spitz- 

 bergen, to more southern countries ? Why ? 

 W^ell, possibly for no worse a reason than this, 

 that these are the lands of their fathers. Other 

 birds, it may be, have grown discouraged, and 

 one after another ceased to come back to their 

 native shores as the rigors of the climate have 

 increased ; but these little patriots are still faith- 

 ful. Spitzbergen is home, and every spring they 

 make the long and dangerous passage to it. All 

 praise to them ! 



If any be ready to call this an over-refine- 

 ment, deeming it incredible that beings so small 



