Birds. 573 



are very garrulous for food. It is during the period when occupied in supplying the 

 wants of his family, that the active hahits of the bird are displayed to the greatest ad- 

 vantage, and all his bodily energies are called into play. I know of no place where 

 he may be observed to better purpose than on the banks of our principal stream, the 

 amenities of which, even in mid-winter, I have already mentioned; but it would be a 

 more difficult task to do justice to its merits when the hanging woods and thickets are 

 clothed in the leafy glories of summer, and the stream, though a false taste has been 

 displayed in many parts of its course, in sloping its banks and removing the larger 

 stones, still maintains the character of its tributary the Garvald, that is, " the rough 

 rivulet," and its winding course and murmuring voice add much to the pleasantness 

 of the prospect. During the months of May and June great numbers of Ephemeridze 

 or allied species sport over the water and throughout the whole glen, furnishing a rich 

 repast to all insectivorous birds. The side of the Cairn hill, which descends to the 

 stream, is clothed with a beechen grove, and being situated in a sunny corner, insects 

 are very abundant there, and looking up the wooded slopes the whole air seems to be 

 alive with fly-catching chaffinches, and their merry song and cheerful cries lend addi- 

 tional animation to the scene. Where the elm flings her spreading boughs across the 

 stream, watchful birds sitting in ambush await the gaudy fly, and when cold winds 

 chill the insects' limbs, the long grass and wild flowers by the water-side are carefully 

 searched by the keen-eyed hunters. Nor is this aerial habit of uncommon occurrence, 

 for no sooner does the sun exert a life-giving influence on the insect world in spring", 

 than this bird may be seen in the air. Most heartily do I wish that gardeners and all 

 haters of the chaffinch would lay aside the gun for a season, and sticking a few pinion 

 feathers of any fowl at right angles into a piece of cork, attached by a piece of string 

 to a stake, and committing the guardianship of their beds of small seeds, primroses 

 and polyanthuses, to this simple scare-crow, would commence observing the habits of 

 the object of their enmity. It will be observed that nothing but insects and larva are 

 carried to the nest, to procure which the rows of pease, the hedge-row and plantation, 

 and the fruit-trees are all searched ; the leaf-rolling caterpillar is wrenched from his 

 cell : sometimes the bird is obliged to support himself in doing so upon fluttering 

 wings, and at other times, when these means fail, the leaf itself is torn off and borne 

 to the ground or to some neighbouring perch. The chaffinches which breed near the 

 onstead haunt the cattle-yards all the summer, and are joined by their broods. Their 

 depredations on farm produce and services in destroying the weeds of Agriculture, are 

 detailed at some length (Zool. 298), where some few points in their history have been 

 purposely omitted. His personal appearance, like his nest, is always the picture of 

 neatness. He may often be seen washing in the pond, even in midwinter, when ice 

 covers the pools, and then he resorts to an old wall pear-tree, growing in a sunny cor- 

 ner, where he flutters and preens his plumage till it is once more dry and comfortable. 

 I have dwelt upon his first vernal song, and the pure spirit of delight and pleasant an- 

 ticipation which it never fails to inspire ; but what shall I say of his autumnal song, 

 now that the love which then warmed his heart has been poured away upon his mate 

 and the lichen-spangled home of his family ? We have occasionally days in autumn 

 which breathe of spring ; but how comes he to sing in snow-storms in October in the 

 cold uplands of Lanarkshire? Several friends — " out-door naturalists" — residing in 

 the counties of West Lothian, Roxburgh and Leicester, assure me that they never 

 heard his voice during autumn ; Mr. Waterton is positive, and Gilbert White is silent 

 on this subject. Say then, ye learned in Ornithology, how comes it that'ihe chaffinch 



