238 THE TREE CREEPER. 



tinues, our little garden visitors diminish daily, and 

 by spring only a few pairs remain of all the flocks 

 of autumn. Yet it is very remarkable, notwith- 

 standing this natural predilection, how readily this 

 bird conforms to a perfect change in its diet, and 

 in all the habits of its life. Most of our little 

 songsters, when captured as old birds, become in 

 confinement sullen and dispirited ; want of exercise, 

 and of particular kinds of food, and their changes* 

 alter the quality of the fluids : they become fat- 

 tened, and indisposed to action by repletion ; fits 

 and ailments ensue, and they mope and die. But 

 I have known our goldfinch, immediately after its 

 capture, commence feeding on its canary or hemp- 

 seed food it could never have tasted before ; nibble 

 his sugar in the wires like an enjoyment it had been 

 accustomed to, frisk round its cage, and dress its 

 plumage, without manifesting the least apparent 

 regret for the loss of companions or of liberty. 

 Harmless to the labours or the prospects of us lords 

 of the creation, as so many of our small birds are, 

 we have none less chargeable with the commission 

 of injury than the goldfinch ; yet its blameless, in- 

 nocent life does not exempt it from harm. Its 

 beauty, its melody, and its early reconciliation to 

 confinement^ rendering it a desirable companion, it 

 is captured to cheer us with its manners and its 

 voice, in airs and regions very different from its 

 native thistly downs, and apple-blossom bowers. 



The tree creeper (certhia familiaris) is as little 

 observed as any common bird we possess. A re* 



