8 



sparrows to one chaffinch, in the country lanes the chaffinch is often 

 commoner. Its food is generally grain, seeds, and the tender 

 leaves of young plants, but in the spring insects contribute to its 

 dietary, and some years ago I stood on a little footbridge over the 

 river Tweed, near Dryburgh, and watched the Chaffinches catching 

 insects in the air, like so many Flycatchers. The female bird is 

 not nearly so handsome as the male, the brilliant colour being all 

 toned down, and the red breast almost absent. I am not very 

 familiar with nests, but that of the Chaffinch is said to be most 

 perfect in finish and general workmanship, taking the female bird 

 sometimes three weeks to build. 



Who does not love tlie Kobin, Erithacus rubecula ; the first 

 favourite of English birds ? What tales are told of his tameness 

 and pleasing little ways in our gardens, on our window sills, and 

 even in our rooms if tempted by a few crumbs and an open window. 

 John Euskin, in " Love's Meinie," the first of a series of Lectures 

 on Greek and English Birds, given before the University of Oxford, 

 after seventeen pages of severe satire on the aristocracy for shoot- 

 ing birds and especially pigeons, on the masters of science for their 

 arrogance and materialism, and methods of nomenclature, and on 

 some articles for their love of minuteness and muscularity, or as 

 he puts it, " the lancet and the microscope in the hands of fools 

 supposed to be substitutes for imagination in the souls of wise men " 

 at length says " And yet I am going to invite you to-day to examine, 

 down to almost microscopic detail, the aspect of a small bird, and 

 to invite you to do this, as a most expedient and sure step in your 

 study of the greatest art. But the difference in our motive of ex- 

 amination will entirely alter the result. To paint birds that we 

 may show how minutely we can paint, is among the most con- 

 temptible occupation of art. To paint them, that we may show 

 how beautiful they are, is not indeed one of its highest, but quite 

 one of its pleasantest and most useful ; it is a skill within the 

 reach of every student of average capacity, and which, so far as 

 acquired, will assuredly both make their hearts kinder, and their 

 lives happier. Without further preamble, I will ask you to look 

 to-day, more carefully than usual, at your well-known favourite, 

 and to think about him with some precision." Further on he 

 mentions, "the indescribable silky brown, the ground work of all 

 other colour in so many small birds, which is indistinct among 

 green leaves, and absolutely identifies itself with dead ones, or with 

 mossy stems. I think I show it you more accurately in the robin's 

 back than I could in any other bird ; its mode of transition into 

 more brilliant colour is, in him, elementarily simple." Again, " he 

 is very notable in the exquisite silence and precision of his move- 

 ments, as opposed to birds who either creak in flying, or waddle in 

 walking. " Always quiet " says Gould, " for the silkiness of his 



