THE WINTER GNAT. 



But here I must close my notes of birds, lest 

 their actions and their ways, so various and so 

 pleasing, should lure me on to protract 



My tedious tale through many a page j 



for I have always been an admirer of these elegant 

 creatures, their notes, their nests, their eggs, and 

 all the economy of their lives ; nor have we, through- 

 out the orders of creation, any beings that so con- 

 tinually engage our attention as these our feathered 

 companions. Winter takes from us all the gay 

 world of the meads, the sylphs that hover over our 

 flowers, that steal our sweets, that creep, or gently 

 wing their way in glittering splendour around us ; 

 and of all the miraculous creatures that sported 

 their hour in the sunny beam, the winter gnat 

 (tipula hiemalis) alone remains to frolic in some 

 rare and partial gleam. The myriads of the pool 

 are dormant, or hidden from our sight ; the quad- 

 rupeds, few and wary, veil their actions in the 

 glooms of night, and we see little of them ; but 

 birds are with us always : they give a character to 

 spring, and are identified with it ; they enchant 

 and amuse us all summer long with their sports, 

 animation, hilarity, and glee; they cluster round 

 us, suppliant in the winter of our year, and, unre- 

 pining through cold and want, seek their scanty 

 meal amidst the refuse of the barn, the stalls of the 

 cattle, or at the doors of our house ; or, flitting 

 hungry from one denuded and bare spray to an- 

 other, excite our pity and regard : their lives are 

 patterns of gaiety, cleanliness, alacrity, and joy. 



T 



