THE CHAFFINCH. 197 



males are, in winter, more frequent in northern countries, 

 of females in southern ; and it having been noted, more- 

 over, that in midland countries there is, besides these 

 flocks, the usual sprinkling of males and females who do 

 not separate, it has been inferred that the females, and 

 perhaps the young birds with them, migrate from high 

 latitudes southwards in winter, while the males merely 

 collect in flocks and find a feeding-ground nearer home. 

 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 

 homesteads, 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 surface ! 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 of weeds that the Chaffinch consumes in the 

 course of a year, more particularly of groundsel, chick- 

 weed, and buttercup, that he, without doubt, more than 

 compensates for all his misdeeds ; and as his summer food 



