THE FINCHES 135 



of which is to be lightly imputed to the author of the Naturgeschichte 

 der Vogel Deutschlands. 1 



As a bird of sentiment and refined feeling, therefore, the 

 bullfinch, possibly, may stand at the very summit of the Finch 

 family, but though assurance be wanting in regard to the others, we 

 should hesitate to condemn them on mere want of evidence, at least 

 till more attention has been paid to the matter in question. An 

 open mind is, in justice as well as in prudence, required of us. The 

 linnet, greenfinch, twite, goldfinch, both the redpolls possibly also 

 the chaffinch are all finches that feed one another conjugally ; 

 possibly, therefore, they may also kiss. In the first four of these 

 cases, at any rate, the female takes the labour of incubation either 

 wholly, or almost wholly, upon herself, thus supplying the male with 

 a motive for feeding her upon the nest, out of which, like "the 

 bright consummate flower" from its stem, the more spiritual need 

 might seem to have arisen. But it is by no means always that the 

 origin of a habit has been in accordance with what, at first sight, 

 would appear to be the common sense of it, and the male chaffinch 

 has been asserted to feed the female, 2 as well as to assist her in 

 incubation, which is also the case with both the house- and the tree- 

 sparrow. 3 All three, therefore, may possibly do as does the bullfinch, 

 but, up to the present, they have not been seen to do so. 



A brief r6surn6 may here be attempted of the various call-notes 

 (so called), cries, and songs, made use of by our British finches. Short 

 it should certainly be, if the subject be approached from the utili- 

 tarian as opposed to the controversial point of view a difficult 

 matter, perhaps, since whilst no two living persons, in all probability, 

 have ever agreed in their description of any bird's note or song 

 (except, perhaps, the cuckoo's), or written it down alike, till some 

 convention had been agreed upon, it is doubtful if any one of them 



1 Now Der Vogel Mitteleiiropas. The old work, with its time-aroma, is most fragrant 

 to the literary naturalist, and the quaint, small pictures much superior to the modern ones 

 in fact, little gems in their way. But, alas ! it is now unpurchasable. 



2 Fatio, Oiseaux de la Siiisee. * Zander, Vogel Mecklenburgs. 



