226 HISTORY OF 



Their nests bear a similitude ; and they are all about the same 

 time in hatching their young, which is usually fifteen days. 

 Were I, therefore, to describe the manners of these with the 

 same minuteness that I have done the greater birds, I should 

 only present the reader with a repetition of the same accounts ; 

 animated neither by novelty nor information. Instead, there- 

 fore, of specifying each sort, I will throw them into groups j 

 uniting those together that practise the same maimers, or that 

 are remarkable for similar qualifications. 



Willoughby has divided all the smaller birds into those that 

 have slender bills, and those thtithave short and thick bills. Those 

 with slender bills, chiefly live upon insects ; those with short 

 strong bills, live mostly upon fruits and grain. Among slender- 

 billed birds he enumerates the thrush, the blackbird, the field- 

 fare, the starling, the lark, the titmouse, the water-wagtail, the 

 nightingale, the red start, the robin-redbreast, the beccafigo, the 

 stone-chatter, the whin-chat, the gold-finch, the white-throat, 

 the hedge-sparrow, the pettichaps, the go) den- crowned wren, the 

 wren, the humming-bird, and several other small birds of the 

 sparrow-kind, unknown in this part of the world. 



All these, as was said, live for the most part upon insects ; 

 and are consequently of particular benefit to man. By these 

 are his grounds cleared of the pernicious swarms of vermin 

 that devour the budding leaves and flowers ; and that even at- 

 tack the root itself, before ever the vegetable can come to ma- 

 turity. These seek for and destroy the eggs of insects that 

 would otherwise propagate in numbers beyond the arts of man 

 to extirpate ; they know better than man where to seek for them ; 

 and thus at once satisfy their own appetites, and render him the 

 most essential services. • 



« The Sparrow. — Wo liave uo bird (says Mr Knapp, in his Journal of a 

 Naturalist) more generally known, tliought of, or mentioned with greater 

 indifference, perhaps contempt, than the common sparrow {fringUla do. 

 Tneslica), " that sitteth alone on the liouse-top ;" yet it is an animal that 

 Nature seems to have endowed with peculiar characteristics, having or- 

 dained for it a very marked provision, manifested in its increase and main 

 tenance, notwithstanding the hostile attacks to which it is exposed. A 

 dispensation that exists throughout creation is brought more immediately 

 to our notice by the domestic habits of this bird. The natural tendency that 

 the sparrow has to increase, will often enable one pair of birds to bring 

 up fourteen or more young ones in the sc.ison. They build in places of 

 perfect security from the plunder of larger birds and vermin. Their art aitd 



