182 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



even a tall stick in the very middle of a grass plot, 

 is sure to attract attention, and from this it will be in 

 constant activity a whole summer's day, capturing 

 its food and returning to swallow it," seeming " to 

 require a proportion of food equal to any bird, cap- 

 turing one moment and resting the next *." 



It is worthy of remark that this is the mode of 

 hunting pursued by some predacious insects, such as 

 the dragon-flies (Libellulid(e),with this difference, that 

 the dragon-fly does not so rigidly confine itself to one 

 station as the fly-catcher, probably in consequence of 

 its much greater power of wing, enabling it to range 

 in an instant from one end of a lane to the other. 

 Yet we have remarked that one of these insects 

 will remain for days together in the same beat, re- 

 turning at intervals to two or three chosen stations, 

 such as a withered bramble-branch, the bend of a 

 projecting rush, or the cross-bar of a paling, ready to 

 dart after any luckless butterfly that might come in 

 sight. ' The chaffinch (Fringilla spizd), though not 

 exactly an insectivorous bird, follows the same prac- 

 tice, though we do not find that this has been re- 

 marked by naturalists f. 



Mr. Main, an excellent observer, must, we think, be 

 mistaken in saying that the chaffinch is " during sum- 

 mer entirely insectivorous J;" for though we believe it 

 feeds its young almost wholly on insects, the old birds 

 uniformly prefer vegetable food. In the early sum- 

 mer they accordingly look out for the seeds which are 

 first ripe, such as those of nailwort (Draba verna), 

 groundsel, chickweed, and the speedwells (FerOJttdfc), 

 and even eat the leaves and young shoots when they 

 cannot procure seeds. Their being prolific breeders, 

 arid requiring, of course, an extensive supply of in- 

 sects for their young, may have led to the mistake. 



* Journ. of a Naturalist, p. 207, 3d edit. 

 t J. R. { Mag. Nat. Hist. iv. 417. 



