17^ THE LANGUAGE Of BIRDS. 
bird of her little ones, and perhaps, not satisfied with 
having achieved the act of robbery, had added that 
of murder, by leaving them to perish with hunger 
and cold. Following the track where the pieces of 
nest had been thrown at intervals, it led me to a 
furze bush, where I soon found a poor little linnet, 
but in a very woeful plight ; one of its wings seemed 
much injured, which prevented its flying. It ap- 
peared to be a bird of about a month old, but was 
in such a weak state that there seemed little chance 
of its living. My friends laughed at the idea of my 
taking it to nurse, but I determined to give it a 
chance for life, which it could not have if left there ; 
accordingly, making a rather clumsy, but warm nest 
for my little invalid, he was placed in it. I fed him 
at first with sop and scalded rape seed ; in about a 
fortnight his appearance was much improved, and 
in a month he was quite convalescent. When he could 
fly, he became very wild, but by degrees got more 
tame, and soon began to warble a little. At Christ- 
mas, he was in full song, and, by his music all the 
winter, has repaid me for my care and kindness to 
him. Mornings and evenings his strains are the 
sweetest ; they sound to me like the overflowings of 
