RECOURSE TO SAVINGS BANK.
These suggestions ended in disappointment. Edward could not remove to Wick to accept a temporary appointment; and the subcuratorship could not be obtained. He therefore went on with his old work—Natural History and shoemaking. But he must have been pressed by the growing wants of his family, as we find his collection of birds advertised for sale at the beginning of 1855. Again he had recourse to his Savings Bank; and again it relieved him,—though he parted with the results of his work during many laborious years.
BIRDS OF BANFFSHIRE.
He still went on writing for the periodicals. At the end of 1855 we find an article of his in the Zoologist, entitled “Moth-hunting; or an Evening in a Wood;” and in the following year he commenced in the same periodical “A List of the Birds of Banffshire, accompanied with Anecdotes.” The list was completed in eight articles, which appeared in 1856 and the two following years. Although his publications were received with much approval, they did not serve to increase his income, for he never received a farthing for any of his literary contributions.
Before parting with Edward’s descriptions of birds, a few extracts may be given from his articles in the Zoologist. And first, about song-birds:—
“The Song Thrush or Mavis (Turdus musicus). Who is there that has ever trod the weedy dale or whinny brake in early spring, and, having heard the mellow voice of this musician of the grove, was not struck with delight, and enchanted at the peculiar richness and softness of his tones? For my own part, I must say that of all the birds which adorn and enliven our woods, I love this one the most. There is to me a sweetness in his song which few if any of the other song-birds possess. Besides, he is one of the first to hail with his hymn of praise the young and opening year.
“Next to the Mavis the Lark or the Laverock is the bird for me, and has been since I first learned to love the little warblers of the woods and fields. How oft, oh! how oft, has the lark’s dewy couch been my bed, and its canopy, the high azure vault, been my only covering, while overtaken by night during my wanderings after nature; and oh! how sweet such nights are, and how short they seem,—soothed as I have been to repose by the evening hymn of the lark, and aroused by their early lays at the first blink of morn.
THE FINCHES.
“The Goldfinch is also a good singing bird. If any one wishes to have a cage-bird to cheer him with its song, let him get a male hybrid between this species and the canary, and I am sure he will not be disappointed. . . . The Goldfinch’s nest is one of nature’s masterpieces. What a beautiful piece of workmanship! how exquisitely woven together! how light, compact, soft, and warm in its internal lining! and how complete! What hand could imitate the woolly, feathery, mossy, cup-formed, half-ball-like structure? How vain the attempt!
“The Bullfinch, though much admired as a cage-bird, cannot be said to be much of a songster. It is kept more for its beauty than its music, though it is sometimes able to ‘pipe’ a very pretty tune. Now, with respect to its food. Great numbers of bullfinches are annually destroyed by our gardeners and nurserymen because they are supposed to be destructive. Now, it is a fact well known to ornithologists that, although the sparrow, greenfinch, chaffinch, wren, bullfinch, and other birds, do not themselves actually live on insects, yet these form the chief food for their young. Such being the case, what an enormous and countless number of noxious and destructive creatures must they destroy! But we poor short-sighted mortals do not know this. We are all in the dark as regards the good they do us. Let them meddle with any of our seeds or fruits, and the hue and cry is, ‘Get guns and shoot every one of them.’ I hope a better day will soon arise for these lovely little birds, when they will be cherished and encouraged rather than hated and destroyed.”