10 PRACTICAL ORNITHOLOGY. 



There stands Robin on the cope of the stone -wall, his dark 

 humid eye glistening as he surreys the ground beneath, intent 

 on the tiny heaps raised by the earthworms. Fear not, little 

 fellow ! no murderous tube shall be pointed to thy small frame, 

 for thou art the friend of man. Even the prowling sehool-boy, 

 armed though he be with an old pistol, will never dream of 

 harming thee. The modest unobtrusive Hedge-Sparrow too, 

 may flit along the fence unscathed. As for the noisy Spar- 

 rows, the pensive Buntings, and all of their tribe, we have 

 already satisfied ourselves with observing and describing them. 

 Here are some tall willows, whose slender twigs shoot high into 

 the air. About a dozen smiall birds are dispersed among them, 

 creeping and clinging in all sorts of postures, busily engaged 

 in searchins for food, and now and then emitting their feeble 

 cheeping cry, changed at intervals for a kind of chiding chirr. 

 They are Tits, but whether the blue or the black we cannot 

 at this distance determine by sight, although the notes are cer- 

 tainly those of the former. Now, what are they searching out 

 on those smooth branches and slim twigs I They are perhaps 

 picking the buds, or seeking for minute insects. When you 

 are in doubt respecting any thing in natural history, never in- 

 dulge in conjecture, for it is worth nothing, but satisfy yourself 

 by observation ; and, as in this case, the only certain method 

 of succeeding is to shoot one or two, do so, and let us open 

 their stomachs. The contents of this very small gizzard, not 

 much lai'ger, you perceive, than the heart, are some slender, 

 white worms, or larvfe, having a reddish head, and a quantity 

 of what seems to be vegetable fibres, but which is in reality 

 skins of these same larv?e. 



In that tall unpruned hedge, with its bank sloping irregu- 

 larly towards the ditch, one may often meet with Blackbirds and 

 Thrushes, especially the former. Hark to the loud " chink, 

 chink,'" and hurried chiding notes, which announce the pre- 

 sence of one. There it glides among the bushes, and flies 

 down the other side. Here is the snail, Helix aspersa, which 

 it has partially broken, and there a heap of others, from which 

 it has extracted the animal, after breaking the case on that 

 stone. Someway ofl" is a Thrush in the very act. In these 



