THE FINCHES 91 



near approach to civilised human-kind, and it is in the same way, 

 in my opinion, that the greenfinch also stands in danger of acquiring 

 it. If it be asked and it is a question which the evolutionist always 

 should ask by what path, I reply by that of the shrubberies. Except 

 the sparrow itself, I never knew a bird more fond of them, and it 

 is through this insidious snare, by which, as I believe, the sparrow 

 fell, that he too, I fear me, will fall. 



For it brings him near the house, to the very walls of it some- 

 times nay, into almost actual contact with the kitchen and scullery 

 premises, which are not seldom guarded in this way and here he 

 habitually builds. With the windows open and the young in the 

 nest, what can be expected? From here to the pipes and gutters, 

 the housetop, and ultimately to the very front door, and under the 

 drawing-room windows, is a "facilis descensus Averni." 



Up to the present, however and may it always be so! things 

 have not gone quite so badly, and it augurs well that some of the 

 more picturesque habits which the bird has brought with it from 

 the larger life of the fields, into the cramped air and confined 

 space of gardens, have not yet become obsolete. If it can preserve 

 them, it may perhaps preserve itself morally I would be understood 

 to mean. Such a one is the pleasing way in which, as the year 

 wanes, these birds, when returning in small bands to roost, will 

 wheel, a little, in undulating flight above the dark place, before de- 

 scending into it. The air itself is dark, by this time, but it is light 

 against the opaque blackness amidst which you stand, and look up 

 at them. A few circles, and, with a little scurry, they are in, and, 

 for some moments, the place is full of sounds fluttering and rush- 

 ing ones, with the harsh, overwhelming chirpings of more prosaically- 

 entering, or roused-up, sparrows, and perhaps the loud "mik, mik- 

 kings " of one or two half-civilised blackbirds. Then the voices sink, 

 the gloom deepens, and darkly they all creep to bed. This, then, is 

 one pleasing trait though it be born out of darkness and winter 

 that the greenfinch brings with him even into our near proximity. 



