182 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



be obtained from the Cbafdnch, because that bird would 

 not breed in confinement, a fl.ight being necessary for the 

 union of the sexes. This information, and the frequent 

 exhibition of a swooping flight by a pair of Chaffinches, 

 led me to conclude that the swooping flight might be 

 really necessary to the breeding of the Chaffinch. My 

 present purpose is to offer some remarks on the question 

 whether a love-flight is necessary to the Chaffinch. By 

 love-flight I do not mean the common straight cuckoo- 

 like flight of the male when he is leading a female from 

 tree to tree, and flying with a constant and even succes- 

 sion of wing-beats ; but I mean the swooping flight per- 

 formed by both birds together, in which they are very 

 near each other, if not actually in contact. During this 

 swooping, the birds always utter the call-note which they 

 particularly address to each other and to their young. It 

 is a little soft sound, something like cliirri pronounced 

 very rapidly. In April and May this note may be con- 

 stantly heard. But during the love-flight another sound 

 is sometimes uttered, and this deserves very close atten- 

 tion. Perhaps the simplest mode of describing it will be 

 to give a few instances of its occurrence. 



"On April 19, 1898, near New Eltham (Kent), a male 

 and female Chaffinch were uttering their call-note nearly 

 overhead in an oak. They quitted the tree at the same 

 time and swooped close together, passing within two 

 yards of my head, and swerved up again into another. 

 They were squeaking their call all the time, and during 

 the flight, but at a moment when the birds were behind 

 me, one of them uttered a brief repetition of a full low 

 note, precisely like the low gurgling rattle which was 

 uttered on a similar occasion by the Chaffinch at Strood. 



" On April 20, at a spot a quarter of a mile from the 



