92 THE FINCHES 



In the spring or summer time the male has another, but it should 

 not be looked for in shrubberies. Perched, now, amidst the high 

 boughs of some whispering elm or poplar in an upright, bold atti- 

 tude, as his custom is, he will, from time to time, divert himself (but 

 not egotistically) by flying about its summit, singing the while, till, 

 from this high bower of minstrelsy, he mounts, of a sudden, to a still 

 prouder height, obliquely, and flapping his wings with such force, as 

 he does so, that, both above and below him, their tips touch, or try 

 to you would think, were it cold (as it may be), that he was trying 

 to warm himself. After this bizarre fashion he will describe a circle 

 or two, and then, sinking singing ever alight, to rest, for a 

 little, either in the tree-top he has mounted from, or else in some 

 neighbouring one, from whence, in due time and in like manner, 

 he will return. The song thus out-welling is pleasing enough 

 thin, but so would the sounds of elementals be light as them- 

 selves and so, and with something of such imagined charm, fall 

 these. Trilled forth by that small feathered atom, he seems 

 rather to be flying amongst them than to have any part in their 

 birth. 



Very different are the sounds thus emitted to some others that 

 the bird has, when, seated lower and nearer, he will, time after time, 

 with monotonous regularity, give vent to a long, deep, uncomfort- 

 able note that seems to come squeezed out of him, like some painful 

 but positive duty. I have often tried to interpret the expression 

 in this sound, as gauged by my mere human ears, and my valuation 

 of it is always the same. It sounds to me as though the bird were 

 shocked at something that and something else quite elusive. This 

 depressing performance is usually described as a scream / call it 

 the Grundy (and something else) note but the indefinability hardly 

 redeems it. I am aware that, between the pauses of his scandalisa- 

 tion, the greenfinch is supposed to sing a low trill is especially 

 spoken of. It may be so, but personally I have waited I have 

 had to wait sometimes for hours, and during all that time the bird 



