22 BIRD NOTES 



could not ; so, if I heard any quarrelling going on, 

 I went near enough to the window for the blue tits 

 to see a warning finger held up to them, when 

 they speedily dispersed, leaving the longtails 

 wondering but happy. They remained in the 

 neighbourhood till late in the spring, and indeed 

 in the summer I once caught sight of one on the 

 sill as I came into the room ; the window was 

 open, and it saw me, and vanished in a moment, 

 though not before I had seen that it had a new 

 light summer dress on. 



The one bird that never altogether leaves ine 

 is the chaffinch. It is coarse and plebeian in 

 appearance and voice and manner (it appears to 

 me to have a ' cerebral r ' in its voice) ; it eats even 

 more than the sparrow, and drives away the other 

 birds if it can ; but its extreme tameness is taking, 

 and there is a great deal of beautiful colour about 

 it. The soft browns of the hen bird please me 

 more than the bolder tints of the cock, and I think 

 she is the tamer of the two. One old hen chaffinch 

 was incessantly here all last spring and summer. 

 I seldom put any crumbs out, but she came all the 

 same, and did not move though I put my face 

 close to the window. One day we had this little 

 conversation in the words of Browning : " ' What, 

 and is it really you again ? ' quoth I. 'I again ? 

 what else did you expect ?' quoth she." She said 



