THE CHAFFINCH 95 
THE CHAFFINCH , 
FRINGILLA CA:LEBS 
Forehead biack ; crown and nape greyish blue ; back and scapulars chestnut, 
tinged with green; rump green; breast wine-red, fading towards the 
abdomen into white; wings black, with two white bands; coverts of 
the secondaries tipped with yellow; tail black, the two middle feathers 
ash-grey, the two outer on each side black, with a broad oblique white 
band. Female—head, back and scapulars, ash-brown, tinged with olive ; 
lower parts greyish white; the transverse bands less distinct. Length 
six inches, Eggs greenish purple, streaked and spotted with purple- 
brown. 
‘Gal comme Pinson’, as gay as a Chaffinch, is a familiar French 
proverb, which describes not only the character of the bird, but 
the peculiar temperament which in France is an essential part 
of gaiety. The Chaffinch is a smart, lively, active bird, always in a 
bustle, flitting here and there incessantly and staying long nowhere, 
always wearing a holiday look, so trim and spruce is he, and rattling 
through his song with wondrous volubility. It received the name 
celebs, bachelor, from Linnzus, who observed that the flocks in 
winter are composed for the most part either exclusively of males 
or of females. Large flocks arrive on our east coast each year 
from the Continent, and others coming from the north spread them- 
selves over the country to the southward. {During the open 
weather of autumn and early winter, Chaffinches frequent stubble 
and ploughed fields, where they busily collect grain and the seeds 
of various weeds, and are not, J fear, very scrupulous whether 
they are engaged as gleaners of what is lost, or robbers of what is 
sown. In severe weather they resort to farmyards and home- 
steads, where, along with Sparrows, Buntings, and Greenfinches, 
they equally consider all they can find as provided for their own 
especial use. On the return of spring, they feed upon the young 
shoots, and for a few weeks show themselves great enemies to 
horticulture. Their visits to our flower-gardens, paid very early 
in the morning, are attested by scattered buds of polyanthuses, 
which they attack and pull to pieces as soon as they begin to push 
from between the leaves. In the kitchen-garden they are yet 
more mischievous, showing a strong inclination for all pungent 
seeds. Woe to the unthrifty gardener, who, while drilling in 
his mustard, or cress, or radishes, scatters a few seeds on the sur- 
face! The quick eye of some passing Chaffinch will surely detect 
them ; so surely will the stray grains serve as a clue to the treasure 
concealed beneath, and so surely will a hungry band of companions 
rush to ‘the diggings’, and leave the luckless proprietor a poor 
tithe of his expected crop. Yet so large is the number of the seeds 
