FASSERES. ( 162 ) FRINGILLIDM- 



THE CHAFFINCH. 



SHILFA, SHEELY, SHELLY, SHELL-APPLE, SPINK, SCOBBY, SKELLY, 

 PINK, TWINK, BEECH-FINCH, HOOSE-FINCH. 



Fringilla ccelehs. 



Ai suck a still a7id sultry hour as this, 

 Whe7i not a strain is heard throtigh all the woods, 

 Vve seen the Shilfa light from off his perch, 

 And hop into a shallow of the stream. 

 Then, half afraid, flit to the shore, then in 

 Again alight, and dip his rosy breast 

 And fluttering wings, while dew-like globules coursed 

 The plumage of his brown empurpled back. 



Grahame, Birds of Scotland. 



The Chaffinch is one of our commonest birds, and may be 

 seen in all our shrubberies, woods, and hedgerows, during 

 spring and summer. Towards autumn it congregates in 

 flocks, and haunts the stubble fields with Greenfinches 

 and other birds, where it picks up fallen grain and seeds. 

 Males are generally as numerous as females in the assemblages 

 seen here at that time, although in some parts of the country 

 the sexes have been observed to keep separate in autumn and 

 winter. When feeding together in numbers Chaffinches 

 generally fly down more or less gradually from the adjacent 

 buildings or trees ; and then, on any alarm, they mount up in 



1 Mr. Hardy says this name is used in the Merse, being apparently a 

 corruption of the Northumbrian name " Apple-Sheeler." 



