Trees that were scarcely observed before, because bare of leaves, now appear, and crowds of birds, Finches and sparrows, fly up from the corn.
"Hodge and His Masters"
Richard Jefferies
Larks and Finches were busily searching for seeds in the reddish-brown soil.
"Afoot in England"
W.H. Hudson
The Finches that, when transported to Australia from England, changed the style of their nests radically and now build in a fashion entirely different from that of their parents; the little goldfinch of New England that will build a false bottom to her nest to cover up the egg of a cow-bird that has been left to hatch among her own; the grouse that near the dwellings of men are so much wilder and keener than their brethren of the wilderness; the swallows that adopt the chimneys and barns of civilization instead of the hollow trees and clay banks of their native woods,-all these and a score of others show how readily instinct is modified among the birds, and how the young are taught a wisdom that their forefathers never knew.
"A Little Brother to the Bear and other Animal Stories"
William Long