WINTER GUESTS 



or it is a cloud of bramble-finches among the mast 

 which hold the eye by their tawny plumage: 

 the chaffinches' nearest relatives. That our cheery 

 chaffinch is the genuine original finch is suggested by 

 its old Teutonic names, Vink and Fink (which we have 

 translated to finch), derived from the call-note. It is a 

 bird of many local names, like copper, white or silver 

 finch, and chink, pink and twink. The old-time bird- 

 catchers knew that a decoy chaffinch, by its aggressive 

 notes of challenge, would draw a variety of other birds 

 to their doom on limed sticks, and gave it the proud 

 name of Battling Finch. 



A WOOD may seem asleep in January ; but at once there 

 is a sense of liveliness when a roving band 

 The of the long-tails drifts waywardly along, 



Titmouse spilling tinkling notes ; these are among the 

 Rout least sounds of the wood, yet ring distinctly, 



as the birds flit about the branches in their 

 haphazard way, as often as not landing on twigs upside- 

 down. Their lightsome flight suggests care-free hearts; 

 and in this they are in marked contrast to the tree- 

 creepers that like to bear them company, and spend all 

 their day in climbing tree-stems. The tree-creeper is 

 perhaps the most silent, serious, and purposeful of the 

 birds in the wood, a pattern of diligence to the rollicking 

 titmouse crew. 



WINTER GUESTS 



A WEEK of Winter brings the fieldfares in force from 



their northern homes to our open meadows, 



Foreign where they at once seek the hedgerow 



Thrushes berries. In warm weather, when well fed, 



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