- Minstrels of the Winter. 25 



than, the goldfinch or the chaffinch, birds of no mean repnte ; 

 but, unfortunately, the call-note of the greenfinch is abominably 

 harsh, and so piercing, that^lt may be heard at a greater dis- 

 tance than the call of any other bird, and is often useful as a 

 warning to birds of other species, as well as to the individuals 

 of the flocks of half-a-dozen or so which frequent the London 

 gardens during the winter. 



Thus, in spite of its being true that the winter has few 

 songs, I have, I hope, shown that it has some music to cheer 

 the heart of man, and encourage the observer to continue the 

 search for knowledge, even when the opportunities for its ac- 

 quirement are few and far between. Nor is the list of winter 

 song-buds exhausted. The crossbill occasionally appears, in 

 company with the hawfinch, in our pine woods ; and these 

 are the two most interesting of all the rarer birds of Britain. 

 Great is my debt to them for amusement freely afforded by 

 their pranks and melody, when they have figured among my 

 household pets, as greatly prized as any. There is the siskin, 

 also rare, but liveliest of the lively — a bird with a merry "heart 

 and a vein of comic humour quite in keeping with the queer 

 character of its twitter of a song. And if all these were 

 silent, we should have the sparrow and the robin, friends that 

 fail not, that a hard winter never annihilates, and that seem to 

 be of kindred, morally, with the redoubtable Mark Tapley, 

 for they are cc jolly" under circumstances the most adverse to 

 merriment. But why mention them together ? they are no 

 friends, and the first is but a chattering thief, while the other 

 is the bravest, the most individual, independent, jovial, and 

 melodious of all the winter minstrels. No wonder the robin 

 is the most renowned in story, and the most sacred in the 

 household mythology, for his mellow song is like a ray of sun- 

 shine during a season of darkness, or, as Emerson says, 

 speaking of things altogether foreign to this subject, "like 

 music heard out of a workhouse ." 



