172 PASSERINE BIRDS. 



heaps of commons and open places ; the halcyon upon 

 small fishes : thus all these creatures, even when they 

 require similar aliment, diet at their separate boards. 

 ^Of the Gallinaceous birds, the wood-grouse is supported 

 by the young shoots of the pine in his forests ; but the 

 black and red grouse live upon berries found on the 

 moor, the seeds and tops of the heath ; the partridge 

 upon seeds in the field, blades of grass or of corn ; the 

 pheasant upon mast, acorns, berries from the hedge or 

 the brake. The bustard is content to live upon worms 

 alone, found in early morning upon downs and wide ex- 

 tended plains, where none dispute his right or compete 

 with him, but one species of plover. The doves make 

 their principal meals in open fields, upon green herbage 

 and seeds. The stare again feeds upon worms and in- 

 sects, but in places remote from the bustard, nor does 

 he contend with the rook, or the daw, but takes his 

 meat and is away. 



The Passerine birds, indeed, are remarkably dissimi- 

 lar in their manner of feeding. The missel-thrush will 

 have berries from the mistletoe, or seeks for insects and 

 slugs in wild and open places, the heath or the down. 

 The songthrush makes his meal from the snail on the 

 bank, or worm from the paddock ; but the blackbird, 

 though associating with him, leaves the snails, content- 

 ing himself with worms from the hedge-side, or berries 

 from the brier or the bush. The fieldfare consumes 

 worms in the mead or haws from the hedge. The 

 cross-bill will have seeds from the apple, or cone of the 

 fir the green-finch, seeds from the uplands, or door of 

 barn, or rick-yard. The bunting is peculiarly gifted 

 with a bony knob in the roof of his bill, upon which 

 he breaks down the hard seeds he is destined to feed 

 upon. The bullfinch selects buds from trees and bushes. 

 The goldfinch is nurtured by thistle seeds, or those of 

 other syngenesious plants. Sparrows feed promiscu- 

 ously. Linnets shell out seeds from the cherlock, or 

 the rape, or the furze on the common. One lark will 

 feed in the corn-fields, another in the mead, another in 

 the woodlands one tit-mouse upon insects frequenting 

 the alder and willow ; some upon those which are hid- 



