200 MY NATURE NOTEBOOK. 



FAMILY LINNETS AND DOMESTIC STARLINGS. 



Linnets, on the other hand, may be taken as the 

 opposite type of birds which never need to separate, 

 because where they nest there is always room for all, 

 and where they feed, upon the seeds of field weeds, 

 there is food for all. So the linnets remain in family 

 parties or communal gatherings all the year round, 

 rarely quarrelling among themselves, and seeming to 

 take pleasure in singing in concert, whereas with 

 most birds song means defiance. Midway between 

 the linnet and the hawk in this matter comes the 

 starling, who is obliged to drive his young away, 

 because the recesses in which he nests would soon 

 become overcrowded, although the young birds are 

 under no necessity, in consequence, to wander alone, 

 like the hawks. One hawk, searching for dinner, 

 scares a whole country-side ; but where one starling 

 finds a wire-worm in a field, a thousand starlings may 

 find one a-piece at the same time, and when they 

 have exhausted one field they can easily find another. 

 So the young starlings spend the winter in large 

 flocks, migrating if necessary to richer lands, while 

 their parents stay at home, and their fathers sing 

 every morning and evening in front of their ancestral 

 roof-trees, when the weather is fine, to announce the 

 fact that they and no one else are legitimate owners 

 of those particular premises. 



SPRING IN WINTER. 



December 25. In every winter there comes a day 

 when you feel that Nature has turned her face to- 

 wards spring. It is not often that this happens 



