Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/327

Rh compelled to haunt move exposed situations. Of the cereal grasses, wheat and oats are their favorites, barley—the only other species cultivated in these parts—being held in less esteem.

The Brambling. The beautiful brambling is one of our winter visitants, arriving in November and departing in March. It mingles with flocks of chaffinches and other granivorous birds, to search the fields for seeds and grain, and when the supply fails it comes to the onstead to share in the general abundance of food for the feathered tribes. I have not observed it feeding on the grain which careless reapers have exposed on the sides of the stacks, but only on the ground round about the latter, by the barn-door, and in the cattleyards: I have seen it enjoying itself in our fields at oat-seed time; but on the whole it seems to be a very inoffensive species during its stay with us. I have not met with any satisfactory account of its habits during its brief sojourn amongst the pine-groves of Norway.

The Sparrow. A large flock of sparrows haunting a homestead in winter, is no bad sign of a well-filled stackyard, for where there is no corn there will be no sparrows. Much has been said on the comparative merit of sparrows as destroyers of insects and grain: a long series of observations induces me to assert that with us, they prefer insect food, when it can be procured, but at the same time they like to vary their diet at every season with grain; for no sooner is the insect world called into life, and the hawthorn puts forth its tender leaves in April, than their depredations cease, and they scour the hedges, and even visit plantations at a considerable distance in quest of insect prey. There, many of their summer haunts are chosen with reference to a supply of such food. I have first to complain of their depredations in the garden, which are similar to those of the chaffinch, besides having a great liking for green pease. Like the latter, they destroy many insects and their larvæ, but are not so assiduous in their attacks on the leaf-rolling caterpillars. Turnip-seed is chosen food. We have no thatched roofs on this farm: one would suppose that, from the coldness of the climate, they would tenant every cranny; far from it, they prefer nestling in our hollies, spruce firs, and tall laurel bushes, commencing as early as March, and often prosecuting their labours amidst the falling snow: concerning this habit I will be more explicit on some future occasion. In August, just when the grain begins to ripen, they assemble in vast flocks, and, if not carefully watched, will soon commit sad havoc on the fields of wheat, oats