MIMICRY OF CHAFFINCH 225 



distance, he was informed that a blackbird in the 

 garden had learned the two first bars of the then 

 very popular song " Two lovely black eyes." Mr. 

 Chambers afterwards saw and heard the bird sing 

 these notes so incessantly as to be wearisome. 



MIMICRY OF THE CHAFFINCH 



I once heard the greenfinch, but never the 

 house -sparrow, imitate another bird ; but I have 

 more than once heard the chaffinch imitate the 

 greenfinch. In 1892, a chaffinch which had its 

 nest in the garden at Brookside, Chalford, exactly 

 reproduced the song of a greenfinch which re- 

 peatedly flew around the spot, singing its ordinary 

 flight - song (in which the final note zskweo is 

 not uttered) ; and the chaffinch would sing its 

 own ordinary phrase and then that of its neigh- 

 bour and relation, with equal facility. I have 

 sometimes heard a chaffinch sing only a small part 

 of the song of the greenfinch. In May 1 890, at 

 Dursley, I walked close up to a male chaffinch which 

 had quite deceived me with its utterance of the 

 common call -note of the pied wagtail. The bird 

 seemed to employ this cry for somewhat of the 

 purpose of a call-note, uttering it at intervals, and 

 sometimes interrupting the repetition by a few utter- 



15 



