THE CHAFFINCH. 119 



inspection, he hopped in at the one end and out of the 

 other." 



Robbie came to an untimely end, having fallen the 

 victim of a cat, which, in a ruthless moment, extinguished 

 all his airs, and avenged the manes of many a worm. 

 His less pugnacious contemporary, the chaffinch, survived 

 for fifteen years, and " Shilly," as this old favourite was 

 called, was very tame, and much attached to his master. 

 When Mr Wilson spoke to him or approached his cage, 

 he always crested up the feathers of his head, and warbled 

 a peculiar song — a compliment which he never paid to 

 any stranger, except to that man all-loving and by all 

 beloved, the Eev. Daniel Wilkie. After becoming minister 

 of the New Greyfriars', when Mr Wilkie paid his first 

 visit to Woodville, he was shewn into a room where there 

 was no one to receive him save Shilly ; but on entering, 

 the master of the house was delighted to find the inti- 

 macy which had already sprung up between his shy bird 

 and his new pastor, — a love at first sight, in which the 

 tiny physiognomist confessed the same spell which often 

 subdued West Port savages, and which still makes his 

 saintly name a sound of endearment in the cottages of 

 Yester and Stonehouse. One morning, coming down to 

 breakfast, Mr Wilson said, "I thought I saw Shilly 

 among some other shilfias in the garden," and sure 

 enough the cage was empty ; but going out to the garden 



