374 SUMMER. 



and the other birds that live upon seeds ; and, there- 

 fore, the seeds of those plants that ripen among hay 

 and corn form part of the food of the old birds, as well 

 as of the young, after these have attained sufficient size 

 and strength for reaching them ; but they also consume 

 a vast number of snails, slugs, worms, caterpillars, and 

 moths ; and thus, while they are in general gone before 

 they can do any injury to the crops, they perform their 

 part in clearing of vermin the places where they take 

 up their abode. The only situations in which we have 

 heard them complained of has been where clover was 

 left standing for seed; and as, even then, they have 

 not been caught in the fact, it is by no means impro- 

 bable that the injury for which they are blamed may, 

 in reality, be done by the linnets. The crake, unmusical 

 as it is, is very far from being disagreeable ; as it is 

 heard in those open places, where there are, compara- 

 tively few other sounds heard in the stilly calmness of 

 the summer twilight, and in situations where the air of 

 that twilight has a most agreeable freshness. 



But we can hardly imagine a place to which the 

 abundant supply of insect food in the summer does not 

 send in a bird; and, generally, when the situation is 

 such that the stores are great, one bird succeeds 

 another at a different time of the day. We have 

 already hinted that the warblers come to clear the 

 leaves, and other birds to perform the same office over 

 every kind of soil and surface to be found in the 

 island ; and when twilight sends the greater part of 

 them to their repose, and the few that are still wakeful, 

 to the groves and thickets to hymn forth their evening 

 songs, a bird comes buzzing along the coppices and 



