32 



NOTES ON BIRDS. 



We must confine ourselves to Sir William's Notes ; and here we have 

 a rich fund of accurate remark and interesting detail, such as could 

 only have come from an original observer of nature. The first which 

 attracts our attention is a spirited and accurate sketch of the jays ; 

 different, very different indeed, from Wilson's text, but still very 

 excellent in its way. Sir William says : — 



" The colours of their plumage are brown, gray, blue, and black, and in some dis- 

 tributed with sober chastity, while in others the deep tint and decided markings rival 

 the richest gems. 



Proud of ccerulean stains, 

 From Heaven's unsullied arch purloined, the jay 

 Screams hoarse. Gisborne's Walks in a Forest. 



" In geographical distribution, we find those of splendid plumage following the 

 warmer climates, and associating there with our ideas of Eastern magnificence ; while 

 the more sober dressed, and, in our opinion, not the least pleasing, range through 

 more temperate and northern regions, or those exalted tracts in tropical countries, 

 where all the productions, in some manner, receive the impress of an Alpine or 

 northern station. This is no where better exemplified than in specimens lately sent to 

 this country from the lofty and extensive plains of the Himmalaya, where we have 

 already met with prototypes of the European jay, black and green woodpeckers, greater 

 titmouse, and nutcracker. They inhabit woody districts, in their disposition they are 

 cunning, bold, noisy, active, and restless, but docile and easily tamed, when intro- 

 duced to the care of man, and are capable of being taught tricks and various sounds. 

 They feed indiscriminately, and according to circumstances, either on animal or vege- 

 table substances ; plundering nests of their eggs and young, and even, in the more 

 exposed farm-yards, disappointing the hopes of the mistress in the destruction of a 

 favourite brood. They are also robbers of orchards and gardens of their finest fruits ; 

 but, when without the reach of these luxuries, they will be content to satisfy their 

 hunger with nature's own productions, the wild berries, or fruits and seeds of the forest 

 and the field."— Vol, I. p. 5, 6. Note. 



This is generalising to some purpose ; and is precisely the sort of 

 Natural History with which every reader must be pleased. Sir Wil- 

 liam's brief sketch of the evening proceedings of the linnet, is also 

 much to our taste. He is speaking of the similarity of the American 

 goldfinch (Carduelis Americana, Edwards), to our linnets, in their 

 manners, their haunts, their breeding, and their feeding. 



" Every one," he says, " who has lived much in the country, must often have 

 remarked the European grey linnets, in the manner above described of the American 

 goldfinch, congregating towards the close of a fine winter's evening, perched on the 

 summit of some bare tree, pluming themselves in the last rays of the sun, chirruping 

 the commencement of their evening song, and then bursting simultaneously into one 

 general chorus ; again resuming their single strains, and again joining, as if happy, 

 and rejoicing at the termination of the day's employment. Mr. Audubon has re- 

 marked the same trait in their manners, and confirms the resemblance of their notes : 



