FREQUENTING HERONSGATE, HERTS. 157 



heat lis, and equally gorse-loviug in its habits, seems, however, to 

 prefer the stunted oaks and solitary hawthorn bushes there to be 

 met with from which to pour foi'th its curious song. There is 

 no other bird coming under my observation that yields itself more 

 completely to the tender passion. When standing on one side 

 of a bush, I have watched a pair of these birds engaged in 

 their love-passages on the other side, and quite indiiferent 

 to my proximity ; the male singing all the while to his mute, 

 and imparting to his wings that peculiar tremulous movement 

 characteristic of the bird. And it is very interesting when, a 

 little later in the season, one has again had the good fortune to 

 trace the song to its source, to mark the artifice of the little bird. 

 Even when this has been accomplished, however, it is by no means 

 easy to discover the bird, lor love being a thing of the past, it 

 becomes more wary. But presently, guided by the upturned bead- 

 like eyes, it is discovered crouching low upon a fork near the 

 ground, its olivaceous plumage exactly resembling the surroundings. 

 After watching one for a time, I have made a feint to look aside, 

 when, instantly, the bird dropped like a stone to the ground, and 

 then, threading its way through the rank grass in a mouse-like 

 manner, it emerged at a point furthest from danger, and, flying 

 off to another bush, recommenced its song. If there be any meaning 

 in the song of a bird, and, indeed, I believe there is a very great 

 deal, its notes were then, undoubtedly, those of self-approval and 

 congratulation that the cunning displayed had so successfully 

 outwitted the intruder. 



The Hedge-Sparrow {Accentor modularis). — A curious instance 

 of receptivity in a bird came to my notice a year or two ago. One 

 morning — I think it was early in March — I was surprised to hear, 

 quite close to me, the trill uttered by the tree-pipit when flying 

 upward from its perch on the topmost branch of a tree. Upon 

 looking about for the cause, I saw a hedge-sparrow sitting upon 

 a shed and singing these notes. Much interested, I waited to hear 

 if the bird had also accjuired the song of the pipit when in 

 downward flight, but that apparently formed no part of its 

 repertoire. 



The Goldfinch ( Chrysomitris elegans). — Alone among the finches, 

 unless, indeed, the allied species the siskin ( Chrysomitris sjjinus) 

 affects the same habit, the goldfinch feeds its young with par- 

 tially-digested food from its crop. And, from very careful study 

 of the bird, I am induced to think that the food consists solely 

 of various seeds, in this respect differing from that of the young of 

 other finches, the parent birds in their case supplying them with 

 a large proportion of insect-food. If it be really a fact that seeds 

 only are fed to its young by a goldfinch, the reason of this 

 apparently abnormal method of administering the food becomes 

 easily understood, because the dry hard seeds would, necessarily, 

 require some degree of preparation before being submitted to the 

 feeble digestive powers of the young birds. 



The Chaffinch (^Fringilla calebs). — An interesting nest of the 



