142 THE FINCHES 



" tsow " or " tsoo" made by the male to the female, usually from the 

 top of a tree ; but it is not this, according to Ussher and Warren, but 

 a sharp " gip-gip," which is employed by him when he flies up to feed 

 her on the nest. This last, apparently, is the ordinary call, and 

 when uttered by the female on the nest may be either a greeting or 

 a request for food, as in other cases a cry of alarm or warning, 1 or, as 

 I should myself say, a generalised sound uttered on all sorts of 

 occasions, without any precise meaning being attached to it by the 

 bird. The call or cry of the young is a " chit-oo, chit-oo, chit, chit" 2 

 From all accounts the song of the crossbill is a very charming per- 

 formance, 3 and must be made all the more so by the silence and 

 sad solitude of those northern fir-forests in which it is par excellence 

 to be heard. Amidst the security and still peace of these, the male, 

 in all seasons, warbles love to his mate, which she, in fainter tones, 

 sends back to him. 



Though more typical, perhaps, as a family, of spring and summer 

 leafiness, finches are interesting birds to watch in the winter-time. 

 It is then that, through hunger, they become bolder, so that, by 

 getting into haystacks in the early morning, before it has lightened, 

 one can have them comfortably at a few yards, or even at a few 

 feet distance. One sees thus, to perfection, their manner of divest- 

 ing the seed from its outer husk, before eating it, and may notice 

 that, whilst the greenfinch and others keep to the chaff-heap that lies 

 by the stack, and eat with head in air, the goldfinch will walk, with 

 assurance, to the stack itself, and, drawing out a blade, with the ear, 

 stand and peck down upon it, like a little crow, husking each grain 

 as it lies. For now the various species of the family are commingled, 

 whilst tits, buntings, and others the robin sometimes, with little pert 

 flirt, and ever-demure, stealing hedge-sparrow I would rather not 

 mention him than call him anything else help to make a warm- 

 coloured patchwork on the white, cold carpet of the snow. It is 



1 Birds of Ireland. 2 Ussher and Warren, op. cit. 



1 Naumann, however, must be excepted. That there are individuals whose song can "even 

 be called pleasing " is his highest praise. 



