Birds. 299 



compelled to haunt more exposed situations. Of the cereal grasses, 

 I wheat and oats are their favorites, barley — the only other species cul- 

 tivated in these parts — being held in less esteem. 



The Bramhling. The beautiful brambling is one of our winter vi- 

 sitants, arriving in November and departing in March. It mingles 

 with flocks of chafiinches and other granivorous birds, to search 

 the fields for seeds and grain, and when the supply fails it comes to 

 the onstead to share in the general abundance of food for the fea- 

 thered tribes. I have not observed it feeding on the grain which 

 careless reapers have exposed on the sides of the stacks, but only on 

 the ground round about the latter, by the barn-door, and in the cattle- 

 yards : I have seen it enjoying itself in our fields at oat-seed time ; 

 but on the whole it seems to be a very inoffensive species during its 

 stay with us. I have not met with any satisfactory account of its ha- 

 bits during its brief sojourn amongst the pine-groves of Norway. 



The Sparrow. A large flock of sparrows haunting a homestead 

 in winter, is no bad sign of a well-filled stackyard, for where there is 

 no corn there will be no sparrows. Much has been said on the com- 

 parative merit of sparrows as destroyers of insects and grain : a long 

 series of observations induces me to assert that with us, they prefer 

 insect food, when it can be procured, but at the same time they like 

 to vary their diet at every season with grain ; for no sooner is the in- 

 sect world called into life, and the hawthorn puts forth its tender 

 leaves in April, than their depredations cease, and they scour the 

 hedges, and even visit plantations at a considerable distance in quest 

 of insect prey. There, many of their summer haunts are chosen with 

 reference to a supply of such food. I have first to complain of their 

 depredations in the garden, which are similar to those of the chaffinch, 

 besides having a great liking for green pease. Like the latter, they 

 destroy many insects and their larvae, but are not so assiduous in their 

 attacks on the leaf-rolling caterpillars. Turnip-seed is chosen food. 

 We have no thatched roofs on this farm : one would suppose that, 

 from the coldness of the climate, they would tenant every cranny ; 

 .far from it, they prefer nestling in our hollies, spruce firs, and tall 

 laurel bushes, commencing as early as March, and often prosecuting 

 their labours amidst the falling snow : concerning this habit I will be 

 more explicit on some future occasion. In August, just when the 

 grain begins to ripen, they assemble in vast flocks, and, if not care- 

 fully watched, will soon commit sad havoc on the fields of wheat, oats 



