30 CHAFFINCH. 



females, at least in the proportion of fifty or sixty to 

 one; in this respect resembling the chaffinch, so aptly and 

 beautifully named by Linnaeus e crelebs,' or the bachelor ; 

 immense flocks of the females migrating, and leaving their 

 mates during the winter. 



And by the way, this said CHAFFINCH, or PINK as he 

 is often called, is a prime favourite of mine, and though he 

 is certainly guilty of some indiscretion in pulling up young- 

 radishes and leaving their white stalks strewed on the 

 ground, yet that were a hard-hearted gardener who would 

 not forgive him this failing in consideration of the good 

 service he afterwards performs when the apple and pear 

 leaves are woven together by the grubs of a little worthless 

 moth, and so smothered and choked, that the crop is sure 

 to fail if there are neither pinks nor titmice to abate the 

 nuisance. It is then that the pink appears in his most 

 amiable character : it is then that his bride is sitting on 

 her pattern of a nest, the neatest and most compact of all 

 nests, and he spends all his time in routing out the grubs 

 from the web-joined leaves, and bearing them to his lady 

 love, or perhaps to the nestlings who have just burst the 

 shell, and are yet too tender to be abandoned by their 

 mother. The saucy bluecap himself is not more expert in 

 this grub-hunting, nor can he cheer us, as does the pink, 

 with a sweet and merry song. I must, however, confess, 

 that that same song, cheerful and merry and sweet though 

 it be, often comes too soon, long, long before the sun has 

 power to warm us, and then sounds rather tantalizing, 

 the semblance without the reality of spring. 



The BLACKCAP is abundant with us : it comes on the 

 13th of April, and stays and sings all the summer through. 

 Nothing ever delights me more than the song of this bird. 



