THE FINCHES 143 



here one may best see the bramblings, those northern beauties 

 whose glowing hues of mingled copper and chestnut put, though they 

 be but their winter robings, all others about them to shame the 

 yellowhammer's even and goldfinch's, much more those of the 

 chaffinch, though the latter ruffles it with them, cheek by jowl, as 

 though anxious to challenge comparison. For the linnet, his breast 

 is not what it was in the summer, nor does he, unless hard pressed, 

 affect mixed company, 1 whilst the hardest of winters will scarce make 

 the bullfinch thus common. It was whilst watching (this en passant) 

 such reunions, at close quarters, yet quite unsuspected, that I came 

 to think birds were influenced in their movements by some form of 

 thought-transference, or, as I have called it, collective thinking. 2 I 

 have never seen any reason to alter this view, which further observa- 

 tion has since strengthened. 



Though the song and call-notes of the brainbling may some- 

 times be heard in this land, yet with us he is essentially a winter 

 bird, and it is, perhaps, in his roosting habits at that season that we 

 know him at his best; for we know him then, sometimes, in his 

 thousands, and there is in such assemblages, when gathered for such 

 a purpose, a very special class of excitement which I have often 

 thought must have in it something analogous to that which prevails 

 at migration. Indeed, it may be precisely the same, since it is the 

 all having some set thing to do, and being met to do it, that gives 

 excitement to numbers. Expectancy first, and then the deed, is the 

 key-note, only the thing must be somewhat eventful and sufficiently 

 concentrated into a period, not spread out through the day, like mere 

 feeding, though even here some excitement may be shown. 



Like greenfinches, 3 brarnblings are fond of evergreens as dormi- 

 tories, and a Portugal laurel, especially, is for them full of charm. 

 Thus they, too, should all local conditions be favourable, may 

 become familiar with the garden shrubbery, but it is not until various 



1 Lilford, Birds of Northampton. There are, however, statements to the contrary. 

 * See Bird Watching, pp. 219-223, etc. 

 3 See ante, p. 91. 



