EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN 143 



are quartered by the small creeper, that leaves no 

 crevice unexplored in his search for minute insects 

 and their eggs. He is assisted by the nuthatch ; 

 and in summer the wryneck comes (if he still lives), 

 and deftly picks up the little active ants that are 

 always wildly careering over the boles. The foliage 

 is gleaned by warblers and others ; and not even the 

 highest terminal twigs are left unexamined by tits 

 and their fellow-seekers after little things. Thrushes 

 seek for worms in moist grounds about the woods j 

 starlings and rooks go to the pasture lands ; the brk 

 and his rebtions keep to the cultivated fields; and 

 there also dwells the larger partridge. Waste and 

 stony grounds are occupied by the chats, and even 

 on the barren mountain summits the ptarmigan gets 

 his living. Wagtails run on the clean margins of 

 streams; and littoral birds of many kinds are in 

 possession of the entire sea-coast. Thus, the whole 

 ground appears to be already sufficiently occupied, 

 the habitats of distinct species overlapping each 

 other like the scales on a fish. And when we have 

 enumerated all these, we find that scores of others 

 have been left out. The important fly-catcher; 

 the wren, Nature's diligent little housekeeper, that 

 leaves no dusty corner uncleaned ; and the pigeons, 

 that have a purely vegetable diet. The woods and 

 thickets are also ranged by jays, cuckoos, owls, 

 hawks, magpies, butcher-birds — Nature's game- 



