MIXED CONGREGATIONS. 233 



concerning one of the most highly-favoured spots 

 for birds it has ever been my lot to know. Sad 

 to relate, this bird paradise has all been destroyed ; 

 misfortunes and death overtook the ancient family 

 who owned this fair domain, and fields and park, 

 woods and fish-ponds, all fell a prey to that modern 

 curse, the speculative builder ! No longer does 

 the air resound with song at morn and even ; all 

 the feathered hosts are gone ; the trout-stream is 

 little more than an open drain ; and one of the 

 fairest sylvan scenes that ever eye of man gazed 

 upon is now a desolation of bricks and mortar, and 

 a wilderness of tall chimney-shafts, factories, and 

 workshops ! My ruined aviary ! No other rural 

 spot has ever yet been able to console me for its 

 loss. I knew every tree and bush, and bird and 

 beast within it, and loved them all ! 



But to return to the birds. It was here that 

 every year I used to watch the autumn flights of 

 Finches a mixed and merry congregation in the 

 beech woods and on the open fields. No two 

 species are more regularly found in company than 

 the Brambling and the Chaffinch ; and very often 

 a fair sprinkling of Greenfinches and Yellow 

 Buntings will join the merry, restless throng. It 

 is a pretty, animated sight four of the gayest of 

 our Finches all in company, flitting about among 

 the undergrowth, or settling in a noisy throng 

 upon the tree-tops, whence they descend, one after 

 the other, to the fields below, to pick up the 

 scattered seeds. At eventide the three species of 



