London to John O 1 Groat's. 47 



the quiet country. If the census of the sparrows alone 

 in London could be taken, they would count up to a 

 larger figure than all the birds of a New England 

 county would reach. Then there is another interest- 

 ing feature of this companionship. A great deal of it 

 lasts through the entire year. There are ten times as 

 many birds in England as in America in the winter. 

 Here the fields are green through the coldest months. 

 No deep and drifting snows cover a frozen earth for ten 

 or twelve weeks, as with us. There is plenty of shelter 

 and seeds for birds that can stand an occasional frost or 

 wintry storm, and a great number of them remain the 

 whole year around the English homesteads. 



If such a difference were a full compensation, our 

 North American birds make up in dress what they fall 

 short of English birds in voice and musical talent. The 

 robin redbreast, and the goldfinch come out in brighter 

 colors than any other beaux and belles of the season 

 here ; but the latter is only a slender- waisted brunette, 

 and the former a plump, strutting little coxcomb, in a 

 mahogany-coloured waistcoat. There is nothing here 

 approaching in vivid colors the New England yellow- 

 bird, hang-bird, red-bird, indigo-bird, or even the blue- 

 bird. In this, as well as other differences, Nature ad- 

 justs the system of compensation which is designed to 

 equalise the conditions of different countries. 



