THE SPARROW KIND. 



537 



But it is otherwise with the small birds we 

 are describing; it requires very little trou- 

 ble to make a species between a gold-finch 

 and a canary-bird, between a linnet and a 

 lark. They breed frequently together; and 

 produce a race, not, like the mules among 

 quadrupeds, incapable of breeding again; 

 for this motley mixture are as fruitful as their 

 parents. What is so easily done by art, very 

 probably often happens in a state of nature; 

 and when the male cannot find a mate of his 

 own species, he flies to one of another, that, 

 Jike him, has been left out in pairing. This, 

 some historians think, may have given rise to 

 the great variety of small birds that are seen 

 among us ; some uncommon mixture might 

 first have formed a new species, and this 

 might have been continued down, by birds of 

 this species choosing to breed together. 



Whether the great variety of our small 

 birds may have arisen from this source, can- 

 not now be ascertained ; but certain it is, 

 that they resemble each other very strongly, 

 not only in their form and plumage, but also 

 in their appetites and manner of living. The 

 gold-finch, the linnet, and the yellow-hammer, 

 though obviously of different species, yet 

 lead a very similar life; being equally an ac- 

 tive, lively, salacious tribe, that subsist by 

 petty thefts upon the labours of mankind, and 

 repays them with a song. Their nests bear 

 a similitude; and they are all about the same 

 time in hatching their young, which is usual- 

 ly fifteen days. Were I therefore to describe 

 the manners of these with the same minute- 

 ness that I have done the greater birds, I 

 should only present the reader with a repe- 

 tition of the same accounts; animated neither 

 by novelty nor information. Instead, there- 

 fore, of specifying each sort, I will throw 

 them into groupes; uniting those together 

 that practise the same manners, or that are 

 remarkable for similar qualifications. 



Wilioughby has divided all the smaller 

 birds into those that have slender bills, and 

 those that have short and thick bills. Those 

 with slender bills, chiefly live upon insects; 

 those with short strong bills, live mostly upon 

 fruits and grain. Among slender-billed birds, 

 he enumerates the thrush, the blackbird, the 

 fieldfare, the starling, the lark, the titmouse, 

 the water-wagtail, the nightingale, the red- 



start, the robin-red-breast, the beccafigo, the 

 stone-chatter, the whinchat, the gold-finch, 

 the while-throat, the hedge-sparrow, the pet- 

 tichaps. the golden-crowned wren, the wren, 

 the humming-bird, and several other small 

 birds of the sparrow-kind, unknown in this 

 part of the world. 



All these, as was said, live for the most 

 part upon insects; and are .consequently of 

 particular benefit to man. By these are his 

 grounds cleared of the pernicious swarms of 

 vermin that devour the budding leaves and 

 flowers; and that even attack the root itself, 

 before ever the vegetable can come to matu- 

 rity. These seek for and destroy the eggs of 

 insects that would otherwise propagate in 

 j numbers beyond the arts of man to extirpate: 

 they know better than man where to seek 

 for them ; and thus at once satisfy their own 

 appetites, and render him the most essential 

 services. 



But this is not the only merit of this tribe : 

 in it we have the sweetest songsters of the 

 grove; their notes are softer, and their man- 

 ner more musically soothing, than those of 

 hard-billed birds. The foremost in musical 

 fame are the nightingale, the thrush, the 

 blackbird, the lark, the red-breast, the black- 

 cap, and the wren. 



Birds of the sparrow-kind, with thick and 

 short bills, are the gross-beak, the green-finch, 

 the bull-finch, the crossbill, the house-spar- 

 row, the chaffinch, the brambling, the gold- 

 finch, the linnet, the siskin, the bunting, the 

 yellow-hammer, the ortolan, the wheat-ear, 

 and several other foreign birds, of which we 

 know rather the names than the history. 

 These chiefly feed upon fruits, grain, and 

 corn. They are often troublesome to man, 

 as they are a numerous tribe; the harvest 

 often suffers from their depredations; and 

 while they are driven ofFfrom one end of the 

 field, they fly round, and come in at the other. 

 But these also have their uses : they are fre- 

 quently the distributors of seeds into dif- 

 ferent districts; those grains which they 

 swallow, are sometimes not wholly digested ; 

 and these, laid upon a soil congenial to them, 

 embellish the face of nature with that agree- 

 able variety, which art but vainly attempts 

 to imitate. The mistletoe plant, which we 

 often see growing on the tops of elm and 



