164 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



from memory, without reference to my notes. I find 

 that the cry in question, the true danger-cry of the 

 Greenfinch, is sometimes included in the song. Also, it 

 is not always slurred upwards, but sometimes remains at 

 the same pitch, when it much resembles a note given 

 by the common canary in the presence of a stranger. 

 The Greenfinch employs the note in the presence of 

 a Hawk, Cuckoo, Cat, Dog, or Weasel. One day last 

 spring I heard a kind of rhythmical repetition of this 

 note, it being alternately slurred upwards and down- 

 wards by some Greenfinch, so that the song seemed to 

 run : Tewy teiooo, tewy tewoo, tewy teivoo, and so on. 

 After listening to this for a minute I thought I had 

 discovered a new strain in the Greenfinch, namely, one 

 composed entirely of the danger cry. On investigation I 

 found a female Greenfinch, evidently disturbed, on the 

 lower branch of an oak in the thicket, she was watching 

 something below her ; and soon a Cuckoo flew up, and, 

 seeing me, went off. The notes of the Greenfinch imme- 

 diately ceased, and were not renewed. On other occa- 

 sions the single cry has been given when a Cuckoo was. 

 near." — C. A. Witchell, Eltham, Kent {Zoologist, 1897,. 

 p. 335). 



Genus COCCOTHRAUSTES, Brisson. 



HAWFINCH. 



Coccothraustes coccothraustes (Linnaeus). S.N., i.y 

 p. 299 (1766). 



Grossbeak, or Hawfinch, Boys, 1792. 



In olden times the Hawfinch was supposed to be only 

 an uncertain visitor to the various parts of England, and 

 was overlooked by early writers on account of its shyness^ 



