158 THE LINNET. 



regulus), that usually only flits from tree to tree, 

 and never attempts upon common occasions a longer 

 flight, to traverse the vast distance from the Ork- 

 neys to the Shetland Isles over stormy seas that 

 admit no possible rest during its long passage of 

 above fifty miles ! There it breeds its young ; but 

 this one object accomplished, it leaves those isles, 

 dares again this tedious flight, and seeks a milder 

 clime. With us it never migrates, lives much in 

 our fir groves during the winter, and breeds in our 

 shrubberies in summer. Peculiar necessities, such 

 as these, may incite the migration of many birds ; 

 but that certain species, which lead solitary lives, 

 or associate only in very small parties, should at 

 stated periods congregate from all parts to one 

 spot, and there hold council on a removal, in 

 which the very sexes occasionally separate, is one 

 of the most extraordinary procedures that we 

 meet with among animals. 



If the sober, domestic attachments of the hedge 

 sparrow please us, we are not less charmed with 

 the innocent, blithesome gaiety of the linnet (frin- 

 gilla linota). But this songster is no solitary 

 visiter of our dwellings: it delights and lives 

 in society, frequenting open commons and gorsy 

 fields, where several pairs, without the least rivalry 

 or contention, will build their nests and rear their 

 offspring in the same neighbourhood, twittering 

 and warbling all the day long. This duty over, 



