SIDE IvlGHTS ON BIRDS 



of the birds, with which he must have been 

 familiar. But, although he touches on many 

 species — water fowl on lyoch Turit, owl, thrush, 

 woodlark, laverock, blackbird, and so on — he 

 usually contrives to bring them to bear on his 

 ever present lassies O, and there is not much 

 either of solid information or of picturesque 

 description to be gleaned from him. 



To Burns, however, we are indebted for this 

 honest little appreciation of the grey linnet : — 



" I wad na gie the Untie' s sang, 



Sae merry o'er the broomy lea, 

 For a' the notes that ever rang 



Fra a' the harps o' minstrelsy.' 



Thus it comes about that we instinctively turn 

 to Wordsworth and to TennyvSon whenever we 

 would find bird pictures drawn from the life. 

 Here species are delineated with care and truth 

 from sheer love of the subject, and not from a 

 mere extraneous desire to point a moral or adorn 

 a tale. 



For the field naturalist it is one of the delights 

 of early spring to peer through the interstices 

 of the boughs and see, shining below, the clear, 

 delicate blue of the eggs of the hedge-sparrow. 

 Thus the following simple sentiment comes home 

 to him at once : — 



" Behold, within the leafy shade 

 Those bright blue eggs together laid ; 

 On me the chance discovered sight 

 Gleamed like a vision of deHght." 



Take again, the green linnet — " a bird so like 

 the dancing leaves " — rejoicing in the early 

 summer sunshine : — 



" upon yon tuft of hazel trees 

 That twinkle to the gusty breeze 

 Behold him perched in ecstacies 

 Yet seeming to hover 

 There, where the flutter of his wings 

 Upon his back and body flings 

 Shadows and sunny glimmerings 

 That cover him all over." 



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