THE CHAFFINCH 95 



THE CHAFFINCH 



FRINGILLA CELEBS 



Forehead black ; crown and nape greyisli 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. 



' Gai comme Pinson ', as gay as a Chaffinch, is a famihar French 

 proverb, which describes not only the character of the bird, but 

 the pecuhar 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 

 Calebs, bachelor, from Linnaeus, 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 comiag 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, I 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, sliowing 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 



