2428 Birds. 



dinary degree of tarueness : at any hour, night or day, he would come 

 to a whistle, and either settle on the shoulder or run along the walks 

 by your side, from time to time pulling your clothes to attract atten- 

 tion. While this owl was alive, the large trees around the house were 

 nightly the resort of many wild birds of his species, who never left us 

 in any doubt of their vocal powers. Since the death of our favourite, 

 the screech of the white owls remains as musical as ever, but the 

 hooting has altogether ceased. 



Thrush (Turdus musicus). Besides claiming our regard by the li- 

 berality of its lively song, the thrush is one of the most useful birds 

 we have. Their destruction by gardeners is a vulgar and most perni- 

 cious error ; they rarely, perhaps never, molest the fruit, while the 

 benefit they render to the garden — by destroying snails, and other 

 like vermin — is incalculable. The perseverance with which some of 

 these birds will sing is really astonishing. Early in the season, about 

 three years ago, a thrush took up his residence in this garden, and 

 remained here all the summer : day after day, from the earliest dawn 

 till dusk, his cheerful notes were almost incessant. One might have 

 fancied that he allowed himself no time for anything else ; indeed, he 

 has been often seen, while on the grass-plot picking up worms, sing- 

 ing in the intervals with all his accustomed volubility. He soon be- 

 came a great favourite with the villagers, and to this day his departure 

 is remembered by all with regret. A bird of this species which we 

 once had in confinement gradually became pied, till at length nearly 

 the whole of the wings and tail was white : we have also sometimes 

 met with pied specimens in a wild state. 



Blackbird [Merula vulgaris). So much cannot be said in favour of 

 this species as of the song thrush. Its full and rich — though rarely 

 uttered — notes do not at all compensate for the sad havoc it makes in 

 a fruit-garden. In confinement it is well known with what accuracy 

 a blackbird will learn to whistle a tune; but on this point he is sub- 

 ject to much caprice : we have known several good songsters, when 

 removed from the places where they had been brought up, refuse in 

 future to utter a note. Pied varieties of this bird are not unusual 

 with us. 



Golden-crested Regulus (Regulus auricapillus) . On a very cold 

 evening in January, we once witnessed a curious and interesting scene, 

 in which three of these beautiful little birds were the chief actors. 

 We were standing concealed in a wood, watching for hawks, as they 

 cafne to roost; a bush of oak-underwood, upon which some dry leaves 

 were still hanging, grew within a yard of us : hearing a twittering in 



