THE WH1TETHROATS 29 



But you are consoled when you think that they will rear 

 two more broods that season, if not robbed by man nor beast 

 three families reared to leave with him when the September 

 gales blow boisterously over the seas. 



A delicate, timid little songster is the " hay-jack," but 

 dear, for all that, with his softly-tinted plumage, delicate as 

 the silvery petals of a rose, and his smoke-coloured crest, 

 chaste as the bloom upon a peach ; and, in return for his 

 sweet short song, he is most welcome to all the cherries he 

 can peck in my garden, nor do I think the needy fenman 

 would grudge him a white-heart. 



