There were BURROW-DUCKS swimming and diving along;

The SKYLARKS aloft loud were chanting their song;

obtuse straight bill; nostrils linear; feet three toed, all placed forwards, formed for running. The following are the chief:

The Hiaticula, RINGED-PLOVER, Sea-Lark, or Dulwilly, weighs about two ounces; length between seven and eight inches; the bill, upper half orange, lower black; the breast is black, front blackish with a white band; crown brown; legs yellow. It makes no nest, but lays four eggs in a small cavity in the sand, just above high-water mark. Found plentifully in most parts of the world; frequents our shores in summer, and retires to more sheltered places in the winter, at which time it is gregarions; but does not leave the country, as has been commonly supposed. A variety found in Spain of a grey colour; another in America of an ash-grey.

The Morinellus, or DOTTEREL, weighs about four or five ounces; is in length nearly ten inches; the breast is ferruginous; band over the eyes and line on the breast white; legs black; another variety with considerable variation in its colours. Inhabits Europe; migrates to the north in summer to breed. Is seen on our downs, heaths, and moors, from April to June, and again in September and October. It is a stupid bird, and easily shot.

The Pluvialis, GOLDEN-PLOVER, Green-Plover, Grey-Plover, Whistling Plover, weighs between seven and eight ounces; length ten inches and a half; bill one inch. Body blackish, spotted with yellowish green; beneath white; legs black. Inhabits almost every where in England during the winter on heaths and moors, and is a cominon object of sport; it also frequents the sea coasts. Retires to the mountains and uncultivated districts to breed; eggs four, size of a lapwing's, colour dirty white, blotched with purple. A variety in St. Domingo

While the GOLDFINCHES, chirping and flitting about, Were delighted in picking the thistle seed out.

The PURS from the sea rose like clouds in the air; GREEN LINNETS (5), PINE-GROSBEAKS, and CROSSBILLS were there.

having the body varied with yellowish, beneath white. Flesh good.

With shrilly pipe, from headland or from cape,
Emerge the line of plovers o'er the sands

Fast sweeping."

A Blackwood's Mag. March 1822. The Himatopus, LONG-LEGGED PLOVER, or Long-legs, is said to be the longest legged bird in proportion to its bulk hitherto known; length from the point of the bill to the end of the tail thirteen inches, from that to the end of the toes five inches more; bill two inches and a half long'; legs four inches and a half long, red; outer and middle toes connected by a membrane at the base. A rare bird in this country, but said to be plentiful in the East and West Indies, Egypt, and on the shores of the Caspian Sea. This bird is wholly white, except the wings and back as far as the rump, which are black. The foreign specimens have the crown and all the hind part of the head black.

The Calidris, SANDERLING, Curwillet, or Tow-willy, has the bill and legs black, rump greyish, body beneath white without spots; another variety cinereous varied with brown. Inhabits the sandy shores of Europe and America. It is found in flocks, together with the Purre, on our own shores; but whether it breeds in this country is not decidedly known.

(15) ORDER, PASSERES, (Linn.) GROSBEAK, Green-LinNET, CROSSBILL, BULFINCH, &C.

The genus LOXIA, (Linn.) GROSBEAK, or Crossbill, comprehends more than one hundred and twenty species, of which the GREEN-LINNET, or Loxia Chloris, is one; it is distinguished by

The HEDGE-SPARROW softly his song in the dell Trill'd; the PETTY-CHAPS louder his note was heard swell;

a strong bill, both mandibles being convex, thick, and moveable; nostrils small, round; tongue truncate. The chief species are as follow:

The Chloris, GREEN-GROSBEAK, Green-Linnet, or Greenfinch, is rather larger than the house-sparrow; head and back yellowish green, edges of the feathers greyish; the rump and breast more yellow. The plumage of the female much less vivid, inclining to brown. Inhabits England, Europe generally, and Kamtschatka; gregarious in winter; builds a neat nest, generally in some bush; eggs five or six, whitish with blood-coloured spots. Feeds chiefly on grain and seeds. Song trifling, but in confinement it becomes tame and docile, and will catch the note of other birds.

The Coccothraustes, GROSBEAK, Hawfinch, or Cherryfinch, is of a chesnut ash-colour; wings with a white line; about six inches long; varies in its plumage. Inhabits Europe; it visits England in the autumn, and continues here till April. Feeds on hawthorn-berries, breaking the stones of that fruit with ease to obtain the kernel. It sometimes sings here in warm winter days. It breeds in France; eggs bluish green spotted with brown.

The Enucleator, PINE-GROSBEAK, or Greatest-Bulfinch, is larger than the last; head, neck, breast, and rump, crimson; the back and lesser coverts of the wings black, edged with reddish, beneath ash colour. Female brown tinged with green. Found in the northern parts of the kingdom in the pine forests, on the seeds of which it feeds, where also it is supposed it breeds. Found also in North America, Hudson's Bay, Siberia, and northern Europe. Eggs four, white.

The Curvirostra, CROSSBILL, or Sheld-apple, is the most remarkable of the tribe, six inches and a half long. Both man

The HAWFINCH, excited by gales of the spring,
His gratulant notes was heard also to sing.

dibles of the bill are hooked and turned different ways, so that they do not meet at the point. The plumage of the male varies from a beautiful red to orange colour on the head, neck, breast, back, and rump; wing coverts rufous brown. Females generally a dull olive green on the parts where the male is red. It does not breed in this country, but is often found in our fir plantations from June to the end of the year. They inhabit permanently Germany, Switzerland, the Alps, and Pyrenees; often migratory in those countries. They build on the tops of pine trees; eggs whitish, with red spots. Feeds on the seeds of the pine, apples, &c. Notwithstanding Buffon considered the formation of the bill of this bird as an “erreur de la nature,” subsequent observation has demonstrated that it is peculiarly suited to the food on which it feeds, namely, the cones of the pine. In truth the more the structure and habits of birds are examined, the more they will be found exactly "fitted to their state and place."

The Cardinalis, or CARDINAL-GROSBEAK, is crested, red. Inhabits North America; nearly eight inches long; sings very finely in spring and summer; feeds on grain and Indian corn, which it hoards up.

The Sulphurata, or BRIMSTONE-GROSBEAK, is olive brown ; throat and belly pale yellow. Inhabits in flocks the Cape of Good Hope; five inches and three quarters long; builds a pendulous nest.

The Philippina, or PHILIPPINE-GROSBEAK, is brown, beneath yellowish white. Another variety with tail and quill feathers greenish brown, edged with yellow. The female reddish below. The first inhabits the Philippine islands, the se cond Abyssinia; five and a half inches long; constructs a curious nest with the long fibres of plants or dried grass, and suspends it by a cord nearly half an ell long from the end of a slender

GROSBEAK, THE ABYSSINIAN THE PENSILE. 177

While the LAPWING, repeating his noisy PEE-WIT,
Flew around in a flutter, perchance of deceit.

branch of some tree, that it may be inaccessible to snakes and other hostile animals; the interior, it is said, consists of three divisions; the first is occupied by the male, the second by the female, the third by the young. In the first apartment, where the male keeps watch while the female is hatching, a little clay is placed on one side, and on the top of this a glowworm, which affords its inhabitants light in the night-time! The nest of the second variety is spiral, with an opening on one side, which is always turned from the rainy quarter. This account of the nest of this bird is, I confess, a little bordering on the improbable: I have no means of ascertaining its correctness. Valencia saw hundreds of the nests of this bird on a tamarind tree in the East Indies; they were like a long cylinder, swelling out in a globose form in the middle, and fastened to the extreme branches of the tree.

Lord

The Abyssinica, or ABYSSINIAN-GROSBEAK, is yellowish; the crown, temples, throat, and breast black; inhabits Abyssinia; size of the hawfinch; nest pyramidal, pendent, with an opening on one side, and divided in the middle by a partition.

The Pensilis, or PENSILE-GROSBEAK, is green; head and throat yellow; belly grey; size of a house sparrow; inhabits Madagascar; nest pensile, shaped like a bag, with an opening beneath, on one side of which is the true nest; does not choose a new situation every year, but fastens a new nest to the end of the last, often having a chain of five nests in succession; builds in large societies; brings three at each hatching.

The Socia, or SOCIABLE-GROSBEAK, is rufous-brown, beneath yellowish; inhabits the Cape of Good Hope; five and a half inches long; lives together in vast tribes from eight hundred to a thousand, at times, under one common roof, containing their several nests, which are built on a large species of the mimosa. For an account of the Pyrrhula, BULFINCH, see Note (48).