MIMICRY OF CHAFFINCH 225 



distance, he was informed that a blackbird in the 

 garden had learned the two first bars of the then 

 very popular song "Two lovely black eyes." Mr. 

 Chambers afterwards saw and heard the bird sing 

 these notes so incessantly as to be wearisome. 



MIMICRY OF THE CHAFFINCH 



I once heard the greenfinch, but never the 

 house -sparrow, imitate another bird ; but I have 

 more than once heard the chaffinch imitate the 

 greenfinch. In 1892, a chaffinch which had its 

 nest in the garden at Brookside, Chalford, exactly 

 reproduced the song of a greenfinch which re- 

 peatedly flew around the spot, singing its ordinary 

 flight - song (in which the final note zshweo is 

 not uttered) ; and the chaffinch would sing its 

 own ordinary phrase and then that of its neigh- 

 bour and relation, with equal facility. I have 

 sometimes heard a chaffinch sing only a small part 

 of the song of the greenfinch. In May 1890, at 

 Dursley, I walked close up to a male chaffinch which 

 had quite deceived me with its utterance of the 

 common call -note of the pied wagtail. The bird 

 seemed to employ this cry for somewhat of the 

 purpose of a call-note, uttering it at intervals, and 

 sometimes interrupting the repetition by a few utter- 

 15 



