28 



My Garden Summer-Seat. 



hedgerow. And yet he is so fond of insects, of which 

 he is in search at present in that apple tree, that I 

 am not sure if he does not present an illustration 

 of a degenerate taste. Primarily, no doubt, he took 

 only those buds which were already doomed by the 

 presence of a minute grub ; but gradually, as food in 

 some seasons was scarce, he came to form a liking 

 for the bud itself (are not all artificial tastes, indeed, 

 formed in this very way ?), and so has gone on ever 

 since, and has become the victim of a depraved appe- 

 tite. He is so pretty, and bright, and sweet in voice, 

 though by no means a rich or connected singer, if with 

 a latent gift for mimicry that may be highly developed 

 (the beauty, par excellence, for me among the finches), 

 that I really would not like to believe all I hear of him, 

 any more than of my next-door neighbour. 



The shy, retiring, hawthorn-loving hawfinch, too, 



I sometimes see, 

 and now and then 

 a greenfinch will 

 visit me for some of 

 my wilding seeds, 

 and, occasionally, the 

 now, alas ! too rare 

 and beautiful gold- 

 finch steals in fur- 

 tively to taste, and 

 flutter afterwards in 

 the thistles. 



With thrushes and blackbirds my garden is literally 

 overrun ; they build in the ivy and in the taller trees, 

 and, as they are not frightened off, come from a dis- 

 tance ; and, bold and destructive though they are, I do 

 not have the heart to destroy them : only they cost 



GREEN LINNET. 



