546 PRACTICAL ORNITHOLOGY. 



I do not believe it has strength enough to pull out a wheat 

 stalk with the spike attached. 



Here are a few of these Buntings, more of the Yellow 

 species however, Brown Linnets, Green Finches, two or three 

 dozen of Larks, and a flock of Sparrows. How merrily the 

 little Wren glides along the side of the stack, peeping into the 

 cavities, while the disconsolate-looking Hedge Chanter creeps 

 along the ground. Well, after all, birds must commit consi- 

 derable havock at times, and it w^ould be difficult to determine 

 in how far they counterbalance it by destroying grubs and in- 

 sects. 



They do indeed. I have seen on the north-west coast the 

 fourth part of a crop of barley, in a remote situation, destroy- 

 ed by the Grey Geese, which came in flocks at night to feed 

 upon it. So wary were they too, that although a friend of 

 mine went out almost every night, he never succeeded in get- 

 ting a shot. 



We are fortunate after all : here in the harbour is the Steam- 

 er, although the passage will be desperately rough. Some Pied 

 Wagtails are gleaning by the edge of the water. Let us adjourn 

 to the inn, refresh ourselves, and talk of national aftairs, the In- 

 trusionists, the Chinese war, Socialists, Phrenology, and the 

 Canadians. By the way, I never yet saw more than one Ameri- 

 can, who did not seem or affect to have, occasionally at least, 

 a mortal hatred to England, nor one, who while he professed 

 to be democratic, did not fail to boast of his aristocratic friends. 

 Measuring national greatness by the acre, some of them talk 

 of England as contemptible. One of them whom I met on 

 Loch Lomond two autumns ago called our mountains mole- 

 hills, our lakes pools, and our trees shrubs. Probably with 

 him our men are Lilliputians, our cities villages, our eagles 

 sparrow-hawks, and our salmon small fry. These people for- 

 get that the best of them are merely Britons, domiciled over 

 the waters. May they prosper ; but Old Scotia, thou little bit 

 of barren rock and peat-bog, thine be honour and renown. 



As we have half an hour to wait, let us rather talk about 

 birds : — the art of making skeletons for example, or of pre- 

 paring the digestive organs. 



