8500 Notices of New Books. 



birds be ascending or stationary in the air or on their descent, so dif- 

 ferent is the style of the song in each case." — (P. 179). 



" The Chaffinch. — During the open weather of autumn and early 

 winter chaffinches frequent stubble and ploughed fields, where they 

 busily collect grain and the seeds of various weeds, and are not, I fear, 

 very scrupulous whether they are engaged as gleaners of what is lost 

 or robbers of what is sown. In severe weather they resort to farm- 

 yards and homesteads, where, along with sparrows, buntings and 

 greenfinches, they equally consider all they can find as provided for 

 their own especial use. On the return of spring they feed upon the 

 young shoots, and for a few weeks show themselves great enemies to 

 horticulture. Their visits to our flower gardens, paid very early in the 

 morning, are attested by scattered buds of polyanthuses, which they 

 attack and pull to pieces as soon as they begin to push from between 

 the leaves. In the kitchen garden they are yet more mischievous, 

 showing a strong inclination for all pungent seeds. Woe to the un- 

 thrifty gardener who, while drilling in his mustard or cress or radishes, 

 scatters a few seeds on the surface ! The quick eye of some passing 

 chaffinch will surely detect them ; so surely will the stray grains serve 

 as a clue to the treasure concealed beneath ; and so surely will a 

 hungry band of companions rush to the diggings and leave the luck- 

 less proprietor a poor tithe of his expected crop. Yet so large is the 

 number of the seeds of weeds that the chaffinch consumes in the 

 course of a year, more particularly of groundsel, chickweed and butter- 

 cups, that he, without doubt, more than compensates for all his mis- 

 deeds ; and as his summer food partially, and that of his young family 

 exclusively, consists of caterpillars and other noxious insects, he is in 

 reality among the gardener's best friends, who should be scared away 

 at the seasons when his visits are not welcome, and encouraged at all 

 other times. The chaffinch, though a wary bird, does not stand greatly 

 in fear of man, for if disturbed at a meal he is generally satisfied with 

 the protection afforded by the branches of the nearest tree, on which 

 he hops about until the danger is past, uttering his simple but not 

 unpleasing note ' twink ' or 'pink,' as it is variously translated. To 

 this cry it adds the syllable ' sweet,' frequently repeated in an anxious 

 tone, and with a peculiar restlessness of manner, which always indicates 

 that its nest is somewhere very near at hand, and by which indeed it 

 is very often betrayed." — (P. 197). 



" The Sparrow. — Whatever is the staple food of an household, the 

 sparrows that nestle around will be right pleased to share it, — bread, 

 meat, potatoes, rice, pastry, raisins, nuts : if they have these lor the 



