Habits of Young Birds. 139 



objects ; not that they are brilliantly coloured, for 

 the young ones are mostly brown on the back, 

 and would hardly catch an inexperienced eye, but 

 because of the playfulness of their ways and their 

 graceful, wavy flight. Young birds play just like 

 kittens, or like the fox-cubs I once caught playing 

 in Daylesford wood at the mouth of their earth, 

 and watched for a long time as they rolled and 

 tumbled over each other. Only yesterday (July 

 15, 1885) I watched a host of young willow-wrens, 

 whitethroats, titmice, and others, sporting with 

 each other in a willow-coppice, and mixing together 

 without much reserve. Once I was taken aback 

 by the sight of two young buntings at play ; for 

 a time they quite deceived me by their agility, 

 fluttering in the air like linnets, unconscious that 

 a single winter was to turn them into burly and 

 melancholy buntings. The student of birds who 

 sighs when the breeding season is over and the 

 familiar voices are mute, is consoled by the sight 

 of all these bright young families, happy in youth, 

 liberty, and abundance. His knowledge, too, is 

 immensely increased by the study of their habits 

 and appearance. His sense of the ludicrous is 



