BIRDS. 229 



linnet, the siskin, the bunting, the yellow-hammer, the oitlan, 

 the wheat-ear, and several other foreign birds, of which we knosv 

 rather the names than the history. These chiefly feed upon 

 fruits, grain, and corn. — They are often troublesome to man, as 

 they are a numerous tribe ; the harvest often sufl^ers from their 

 depredations ; and while they are driven off from one end of the 

 field, they fly round, and come in at the other. But these also 

 have their uses : they are frequently the distributors of seeds 

 into different districts ; those grains which they swallow are 

 sometimes not wholly digested ; and these, laid upon a soil con- 

 genial to them, embellish the face of nature with that agreeable 

 variety, which art but vainly attempts to imitate. The mistletoe 

 plant, which we often see growing on the tops of elm and other 

 trees, has been thought to be propagated in this manner ; yet, as 

 it is often seen growing on the under side of the branch, and 

 sometimes on a perpendicular shoot, it seems extraordinary how 

 a seed could be deposited in that situation. However this be, 

 there are many plants propagated from the depositions of birds ; 

 and some seeds are thought to thrive the better for first having 

 undergone a kind of maceration in the stomach of the little ani- 

 mal, before it is voided on the ground. 



There are some agreeable songsters in this tribe also ; and 

 those who like a loud piercing pipe, endued with great variety 

 and perseverance, will be pleased most with their singing. The 

 songsters of this class are the canary-bird, the linnet, the chaf- 

 finch, the gold-finch, the green-finch, the bull-finch, the bram- 

 bling, the siskin, and the yellow-hammer. The note of these is 

 not so generally pleasing as that of the soft-billed birds, but it 

 usually holds longer ; and, in a cage, these birds are more easily 

 fed, and more hardy.* 



* Voices of Birds. — We note birds in general more from their voices thau 

 their pliimago ; for the carols of spring- may be heard involuntarily, but to 

 observe the form and decoration of these creatures requires an attention not 

 always given. Vet we have some native birds beautifully and conspicuously 

 feathered; the g..ld-finch. the chaffinch, the wagtails, are all eminently 

 adorned, and the fine gradations of sober l)rowns in several others are very 

 pleasing. Those sweet sounds, called the song of birds, proceed only from 

 the male ; and, with a few exceptions, only during the season of incuba- 

 tion. Hence the comparative quietness of our summer months, when this 

 care is over, except from accidental causes, where a second nest is formed ; 

 few of our birds bringing up more than one brood in the season. The red. 

 breast, blackbird, and thrush, in mild winlcr.-;, may continually be lieani, 

 Uf. U 



