136 THE FINCHES 



has ever been recognised through such attempts at assistance. It 

 would, as I conceive, make no very real or practical difference, if, by 

 some oversight or confusion, the items in the following list were to 

 be ascribed, uniformly, to the wrong species, but I shall not, on this 

 account, be less careful not to do so, though probably there would 

 be as many for as against the new scheme : with which warning for 

 it should temper undue expectation I will permit my " adventurous 

 pen" to "pursue," not "things unattempted yet" certainly (far from 

 it), but certainly as yet unachieved which is almost as bold " in 

 prose or rhyme." 



The chaffinch in its song which lasts from February to June is 

 supposed by some to say, " In another month will come a wheatear." 

 Space is insufficient for other possible renderings of the bird's mean- 

 ing, but the mode of expression the rapid little strain, with the 

 long, pronounced note at the end is familiar to all who are ever 

 likely to have a curiosity on the subject. The call-note is the loud 

 "pink" "spink" " tuik" " tweet" etc., common to both sexes, but accord- 

 ing to Witchell, from whom the following facts have been taken, 

 there is another, a short loud "whit," which is uttered only by the 

 male. The " whit " is sometimes used as an alarm-note, which might 

 distinguish it from the "pink" were not this used as an alarm-note 

 also, as is, moreover, on various occasions, the last note the "ear" 

 of the song. Furthermore, the "pink" is a battle-cry, but since it is 

 also uttered when there is neither danger nor likelihood of battle, it 

 is equally, as far as one can see, both a peace- and a safety-cry, so 

 that the definiteness of all these four meanings seems proportionately 

 weakened. Moreover, it is used as a signal for roosting in the winter, 

 and as a signal that all is well that is to say, for nothing in parti- 

 cular at any time. The "whit" is uttered during the first four 

 months of the year, and the "pink" which succeeds it, is in its turn 

 followed by a "tysh" which is the autumn call-note. The mutual 

 love-note of the two sexes is a sound like the " chissick" (not to give 

 variants) of the sparrow, but the young birds employ this same love- 



