120 The Canary. 



no doubt, and encouraged to further perseverance by 

 the lovely sight, conscious that if they should only 

 prove equally as attentive to their maternal duties as 

 the happy pair before them, their labours would in due 

 time be similarly blessed, and themselves be equally 

 happy. Very cheering was it to watch these little 

 birds constructing with artistic skill the soft lining of 

 their nests ; very lovely was it to notice the self-denying 

 love and unwearied patience Avith which they brooded 

 over their little eggs, and tended their caller-young. 

 Beautifully and minutely has Erasmus Darwin sketched 

 the whole process when describing that of their kindred 

 finch, the linnet. 



" The busy birds, with nice selection, cull 

 Soft thistle-down, grey moss, and scattered wool; 

 Far from each prying eye the nest prepare. 

 Formed of warm moss, and lined with softest hair. 

 Week after week, regardless of her food, 

 Th' incumbent linnet warms her future brood ; 

 Each spotted o,^^ with ivory bill she turns. 

 Day after day with fond impatience burns — 

 Hears the young prisoner chirping in his cell. 

 And breaks in hemispheres the fragile shell !" 



