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 ? 
Well, 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 toit. All 
praise to them ! 
If any be ready to call this an over-refine- 
ment, deeming it incredible that beings so small 
