166 THE GOLDFINCH. 



beneath the foliage in the hedge : the very vegetation, 

 bathed in dew and moisture, full fed, partakes of this 

 early morning joy and health, and every creeping thing 

 is refreshed and satisfied. As day advances, it changes 

 all ; and of these happy beings of the early hour, part 

 are away, and we must seek them ; others are oppressed, 

 silent, listless ; the vegetable, no longer lucid with dew, 

 and despoiled of all the little gems that glittered from 

 every serrature of its leaf, seems pensive at the loss. 

 When blessed with health, having peace, innocence, 

 and content, as inmates of the mind, perhaps the most 

 enjoyable hours of life may be found in an early sum- 

 mer's morning. 



Oct. 9. A brilliant morning! warm, without oppres- 

 sion ; exhilarating, without chilling. Imagination can- 

 not surely conceive, or caprice wish for an atmospheric 

 temperature more delightful than what this day affords ; 

 having mingled with it just that portion of vital air 

 which brisks up animality, without consuming the sus- 

 tenance of life ; satisfying the body with health, and 

 filling the heart with gratitude. Fine threads of gossa- 

 mer float lazily along the air, marking by this peculiar 

 feature the autumn of our year. On our commons, and 

 about our thistly hedge-rows, flocks of goldfinches* 

 (fringilla carduelis), the united produce of the summer 

 months, are sporting and glistening in the sunny beam, 

 scattering all over the turf the down of the thistle, as 

 they pick out the seed for their food. But this beauti- 

 ful native has only a few short weeks in which it will 

 have liberty to enjoy society and life. Our bird-catchers 

 will soon entrap it; and of those that escape his toils, 

 few will survive to the spring, should our winter prove 

 a severe one. Long as I have noticed this bird, it has 

 appeared to me that it never makes any plants generally 

 its food, except those of the syngenesia class, and on 

 these it diets nearly the whole year. In the spring sea- 

 son it picks out the seeds from the fir cones. During 

 the winter months it very frequently visits our gardens, 

 feeding on the seeds of the groundsel (senccio vul- 

 garis), which chiefly abounds in cultivated places, and 

 vegetates there throughout the coldest seasons. This, 



* See note X, appendix. 



