188 CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



tainly does not get worse ; indeed he is now much stronger than he was. 

 It seems a kind of paralysis, and I have been trying the effects of elec- 

 tricity upon him, by drawing sparks from the joints. This, at first, 

 seemed to have been of great service to him, but it appears now almost 

 to have lost its effect. He is an uncommonly handsome bird, and well 

 worth the trouble of curing, if I can manage it. It is worthy of 

 remark, that the mule of this bird is enclosed in a film like that of a 

 nestling, incontrovertibly establishing the fact, that this film is caused 

 by the bird being in a constant state of quiescence. He is fond of 

 pieces of almond, and the kernels of hazelnuts, and he consumes a 

 great deal of hempseed, but seems indifferent to any other small seed 

 that I offer him ; eating them when he takes them from my finger, 

 but never pecking them from the ground. He refuses haws, and 

 though he takes them from the hand, as he does every thing that is 

 offered, yet he invariably rejects the berries from which he takes his 

 name. I should very much like to ascertain the musical powers of the 

 hawfinch. I have also a very fine male bramblefinch, which, in form, 

 in manners, and in every thing I have yet observed, entirely resembles 

 the chaffinch ; even in the peculiar strut when on the ground. I have 

 not yet heard him sing, but he has had the migratory feeling very 

 strong upon him, and until that has quite left him, I cannot expect him 

 to sing. I keep the bramblefinch along with my pugnacious little nettle- 

 creeper, and each seems equally afraid of the other. The bramble- 

 finch has the migratory feeling upon him chiefly in the daytime ; the 

 warblers migrate only by night. — Edward Dlyth. 

 Tooting. 



Curious instinct in a ewe. — A ewe belonging to Mr. , 



of Merton, has, for the last six weeks, been endeavouring to entice from 

 the mother every lamb that has been dropt of the flock to which she 

 belongs, and about a fortnight since she succeeded in getting a sickly 

 twin lamb to follow her, which would probably have died, had it 

 remained with its own mother. This lamb she has suckled ever since, 

 although she has not herself lambed yet ; but is expected to drop a 

 lamb in the course of three or four days. — Edward Blyth. 



Tooting. 



Redbreast building with leaves. — Having always lived in the 

 country, I have had many opportunities of observing the habits of the 

 feathered race, particularly in the part of nest building, though I have 

 never studied natural history in a scientific way, but only as a rural 



