FOOD OF THE GOLDFINCH. 
167 
however, is an humble plant ; and when covered by the 
snow, the poor birds are half famished for want. We 
then see them striving to satisfy their hunger by picking 
some solitary green head of the plant remaining above 
the frozen snow, and so tame, that they will suffer a 
very near approach before they take flight. As the 
frost continues, our little garden visitors diminish daily, 
and by spring only a few pairs remain of all the flocks 
of autumn. Yet it is very remarkable, notwithstanding 
this natural predilection, how readily this bird conforms 
to a perfect change in its diet, and in all the habits of 
its life. Most of our little songsters, when captured 
as old birds, become in confinement sullen and dis- 
pirited ,* want of exercise, and of particular kinds of 
food, and their changes, alter the quality of the fluids : 
they become fattened, and indisposed to action by re- 
pletion ; fits and ailments ensue, and they mope and 
die. But I have known our goldfinch, immediately 
after its capture, commence feeding on its canary or 
hemp-seed, food it could never have tasted before, nib- 
ble his sugar in the wires like an enjoyment it had been 
accustomed to, frisk round its cage, and dress its plu- 
mage, without manifesting the least apparent regret for 
the loss of companions or of liberty. Harmless to the 
labors or the prospects of us lords of the creation, as so 
many of our small birds are, we have none less charge- 
able with the commission of injury than the goldfinch ; 
yet its blameless, innocent life does not exempt it from 
harm. Its beauty, its melody, and its early reconcilia- 
tion to confinement, rendering it a desirable companion, 
| it is captured to cheer us with its manners and its voice, 
in airs and regions very different from its native thistly 
downs, and apple-blossom bowers. 
The tree-creeper (certhia familiaris) is as little ob- 
served as any common bird we possess. A retired in- 
i habitant of woods and groves, and not in any manner 
conspicuous for voice or plumage, it passes its days with 
| us, creating scarcely any notice or attention. Its small 
size, and the manner m which it procures its food, both 
tend to secrete him from sight. It feeds entirely on 
I small insects, which it seeks between the crevices in 
