LOXIA CHLORIS. 42 & 



The primrose paints the dewy dell 



In beauty's everlasting spell ; 

 And wood anemones display 

 Their rosy lips in bright array, 

 The wanton bee inviting ; 

 While down the valley softly steals 

 The soothing balm that kindly heals 



The wound of winter's smiting. 



The merry finch, with sapphire coat, 



From bough to bough is springing ; 

 There's nought but music in his throat, 



For love inspires his singing. 

 The clarion of the throstle thrills 

 The dingle with his calls and trills ; 

 While full and deep the welcome strain 

 Of " cuckoo" fills the plain — 

 A solo in the chorus ; 

 And will we fail to join the throng 

 In Nature's universal song, 



With heaven smiling o'er us ? 



Even philosophic Wordsworth thinks the green finch worth 

 noting as a song bird, for he says — 



" Thou linnet ! in thy green array, 

 Dost lead the revels of the May, 

 And this is thy dominion." 



Be that as it may, the green linnet does not shine as a songster, 

 though its " green array" docs as a dress. Nor is it void of 

 intelligence, as the following letter from " A Fifer" recently in 

 the Scotsman shows — 



"The letter about an 'ingenious cockatoo' encourages me to give this 

 story of a humble green linnet, which bids for fame, in the Kingdom of 

 Fife. In summer, while playing, some children found two helpless young 

 linnets on the ground, and took them home to their mother, who was 

 rewarded by the survival of the subject of this letter. 'Jacky,'as he is 

 called, was left to the freedom of his own will to roam about the house, and 

 soon showed superior intelligence by flying on to the finger, head, or 

 shoulder — at the call ' Come Jacky,' and awakening the goodwife by gently 

 tapping her head with his bill. When she is at the sewing machine he sits 

 and watches her threading the needle, catching hold of the thread when it 

 enters the needle eye, and pulls it through. Add to this the fact 

 that ' Jacky' goes out for a day or two in the country, and comes back of 

 his own accord. Calling on my friends in Pitlessie, where ' Jacky' is, he 

 came at the call and sat on my finger. I think we would see and learn far 

 more of the happy relationship of man and beast if kindness and liberty 

 took the place of cruelty and confinement. " — A Fifer. 



A paragraph, under the heading " Interesting to Ornithologists,'* 

 also from Pitlessie, appeared in the press — 



"Early in summer last year the children of Mr William Speed found a 

 young lintie, and brought it up in the house. It was never in a cage, but flew 

 out and in as it pleased. All winter it remained in the house, but in April 

 this year a mate came, and the pair flew about a short time enjoying them- 



