A 30 HALF-HOURS IN THE GREEN LANES. 



has always seemed to us that the naked and helrless 

 condition of the young of our singing birds, had 

 something to do with their learning their charac- 

 teristic notes during the period of their fledging. 



There are few prettier birds than the Yellow 

 Bunting, or Yellow Hammer, notwithstanding its 

 commonness ; which has the advantage, however, of 

 animating our country lanes. Birds with striking 

 plumage are not necessarily confined to the tropics, 

 for we should go far and fare worse than find such 

 elegant and daintily ornamental forms as the 

 redstart, goldfinch, bullfinch, or the pied wagtail. 

 Every physical geographical condition of the British 

 islands has its peculiar species our aquatic and 

 wading birds in tarns, rivers, estuaries, and by the 

 sea-shore ; our heaths and moors peopled with stone- 

 chats, whin-chats, golden plover, &c. ; and our 

 woods and hedges by the finches, thrushes, common 

 creeper, and the majority of the hard-billed birds, 

 Of these, we may take the Hawfinch (Coccothraustes 

 vulgaris) as an extreme type of the adaptation, in 

 strength of the beak, to the kind of food affected by 

 its owner. If you come across a bird having a beak 

 more conical and larger than usual, you may almost 

 rest assured it is the hawfinch. It is not so common 

 now as it formerly was indeed in most localities it 

 may be called " rare." But we have seen it in small 

 flocks frequently in the plantations in Norfolk and 

 Suffolk. As its name implies, a part of its food is 

 obtained from the kernel of haws, although the 



