THE MOUNTAIN FINCH. 



229 



Cheering the brooding dam : she sits concealed 

 Within the nest deep-hollowed, well disguised 

 With lichens grey, and mosses gradual blent, 

 As if it were a knurle in the bough. 



To this we may append a sonnet expressive of our own 

 ideas of this beautiful and agreeable bird : 



List, to the merry Shilfa ! In the air, 



It sweetly trills a morning song of praise, 

 And flits from bough to bough, now here, now there, 



Nor long in any spot or posture stays ; 



A lovely bird, that in the early days 

 When only fitful gleams of sunshine break 



Athwart the leaden gloom and misty haze 

 That veil the infant year, will frequent make 

 The leafless woods re-echo to its call, 



Trecf, treef a low sweet note, and then a shrill 

 And sharp fink, fink, upon the ear doth fall, 



Like speech expressiv e of a sentient will : 

 As brisk, as merry, and as loved a bird, 

 As any in the fields and woodlands heard. 



MOUNTAIN FINCH. 



THE MOUNTAIN FINCH (Fringilla montifringilla). Some- 

 times called the Bramble Finch, or Brambling. This is 

 the only other British representative of the genus Fringilla; 

 it is about the same size as the Chaffinch, which it also 



