FINCHES 185 



Thou, linnet : in thy green array 

 Presiding" spirit here to-day, 

 Dost lead the revels of the May, 

 And this is thy dominion. 



Upon yon tuft of hazel trees 

 That twinkle to the gusty breeze 

 Behold him perched in ecstasies. 



Yet seeming still to hover : 

 There : where the flutter of his wings 

 Upon his back and body flings 

 Shadows and sunny glimmerings 



That cover him all over." 



Perhaps it is in his recognition of the joy of 

 spring rather than in his song that the Greenfinch 

 is remarkable. Usually a somewhat stolid bird, the 

 cock now becomes a changed character, and forget- 

 ting his ordinary business-like flight, he actually 

 gambols in the air, soaring in wide semicircles, 

 singing the while, and displaying to the uttermost 

 his golden and green plumes, now at their best 

 and brightest. 



The Greenfinch is a late builder, and the nest, 

 formed mainly of roots, is placed in bushes and 

 high hedges : rarely in trees. In winter, when the 

 large flocks are formed, the sexes, as in the case of 

 the Chaflinch, are said to separate, but this can only 

 apply to certain localities, and is by no means the 

 general rule. 



Although the Greenfinch is one of the com- 

 monest woodland birds the Chaflinch is still more 

 familiar. Not by his abundance alone, but by his 

 perfect friendliness and his charm of plumage and 

 of song, he strikes the foreign observer at once as 



