138 IN PAIRING TIME 



my Tennyson and, turning to "Sea Dreams," read: 



" She pointed seaward : there a fleet of glass, 

 That seemed a fleet of jewels under me, 



Sailing along past 



In sunshine : right across its track there lay, 

 Down in the water, a long reef of gold . . . 



and then I feared 



Lest the gay navy there should splinter on it, 

 And fearing waved my arm to warn them off ; 

 An idle signal, for the brittle fleet 



neared, 



Touch'd, clink'd, and clash'd, and vanish'd . . " 



Examining myself as to the reason of my 

 satisfaction, I found that in the ampler, less definite 

 setting of such a picture, I might lose the sense of 

 that deficiency which arose from the application of 

 more narrowly defined likenesses to the singing of 

 the Corn-bunting. And now, whenever I hear that 

 strangely indescribable song, I seem to look out upon 

 a sunlit sea ; and that glittering fleet of glass a toy 

 of the distance comes up, and gliding on bright 

 fabric of poesy, all but spirit-light goes to its doom, 

 touches, clinks, clashes and vanishes ; and the far 

 echo of its tinkling destruction is no more than a note 

 in a song-bird's throat. 



Although winter bands of Chaffinches remain 

 with us until overtaken by other bands that move up 

 to us usually in the first week in March, couples of 

 these birds male and female may be seen in the 

 opening days of February, keeping company in the 

 manner of pairs. Singing begins with the arrival of 

 the early- March migrants, and the impetuous nature 

 of the Chaffinch is at once made evident by its 

 impatient rivalry in song. Contrast with this the 



