254 HISTORY OF 



riety of small birds that are seen among us ; some 

 uncommon mixture might first have formed a 

 new species, and this might have been continued 

 down by birds of this species choosing to breed 

 together. 



Whether the great variety of our small birds 

 may have arisen from this source, cannot now be 

 ascertained : but certain it is, that they resemble 

 each other very strongly, not only in their form 

 and plumage, but also in their appetites and man- 

 ner of living. The goldfinch, the linnet, and 

 the yellow-hammer, though obviously of different 

 species, yet lead a very similar life ; being equal- 

 ly an active, lively, salacious tribe, that subsist 

 by petty thefts upon the labours of mankind, and 

 repay them with a song. Their nests bear a si- 

 militude ; and they are about the same time in 

 hatching their young, which is usually fifteen 

 days. Were I, therefore, to describe the man- 

 ners of these with the same minuteness that I 

 have done the greater birds, I should only present 

 the reader with a repetition of the same accounts, 

 animated neither by novelty nor information. In- 

 stead, therefore, of specifying each sort, I will 

 throw them into groupes ; uniting those together 

 that practise the same manners, or that are re- 

 markable for similar qualifications: 



Willoughby has divided all the smaller birds 

 into those that have slender bills, and those that 

 have short and thick bills. Those with slender 

 bills chiefly live upon insects j those with short, 

 strong bills, live mostly upon fruits and grain. 

 Among slender-billed birds he enumerates the 



