32 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



that we lose sight of the fact that they are such mid- 

 gets. Like the crossbills, the linnets are social, and are 

 seen only in flocks, when here. A peculiarity, too, is the 

 great elevation at which they fly, when passing to any 

 point at a considerable distance. They usually, it would 

 seem, fly at a height beyond the range of our vision, 

 and so, when they suddenly appear, it is not from some 

 adjacent tree, or around a corner. They appear rather 

 to drop from the clouds. More than once, while watch- 

 ing the crows on their way to their roosts, I have de- 

 tected minute black dots in the sky, which, as I watched 

 them, grew rapidly larger and more abundant. Down, 

 down, down they came, and, reaching the top of some 

 tall tree, spread over it, and reminded me of the empty- 

 ing of a feather pillow in the wind. 



Unlike the crossbills, the linnets keep up a continual 

 chatter when they alight, and all the time that they 

 tarry in the trees. While apparently without a leader, 

 they act much as though they were regularly drilled by 

 a strict disciplinarian. I suppose, in this case, that it is 

 mutually agreed that whoever, for the time, takes the 

 lead, that all will follow. At all events, by some sub- 

 tle telegraphy, the like impulse moves them all at the 

 same second, and as suddenly as they appeared, so they 

 depart. 



Poaetquissings Creek is not an aviary. Let us look 

 at something belonging to it that is not feathered and 

 flighty. There are still some noble trees upon its banks ; 

 but, alas ! far nobler ones have been gathered for fire- 

 wood. What a pity there are not forests in the moon, 



