94 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



but merely sounds like tsip, tsip, tsip, turrrrrl, torrrrrl, a sort of liquid bubbling; 

 a little later there is an effort to get in the terminal notes, then by twos and 

 threes the other notes come out weakly ; until, by March, the full song is remembered 

 and rings out from the trees and hedgerows ; when perfect it is a full rattling 

 scale, ending variously in different individuals, although the same bird at times 

 varies his terminal phrase : sometimes it is chucha churr, sometimes tissi-ear, and 

 requently wheatear ; the bird-catchers call the birds which use the first phrase 

 " chuckwados," and those that use the two last " kiss-me-dears." In Kent, and I 

 believe in some other counties, the Chaffinch is said to sing " If we wait another 

 month, we shall have the Wheatear." 



The call-note of the Chaffinch is, I believe, that described by my friend Mr. 

 Charles Witchell as "a loud short whistle very rapidly slurred upwards in the 

 interval of about a fifth or sixth. It may be pronounced tivit" * The call of the 

 young for food is chizzit, chizzit, chizzit ; Mr. Witchell, (who, however, renders it 

 chizzicK) says that he has heard the old birds utter the same note. The war-cry 

 undoubtedly is a shrill chick, chick, with a slight metallic n sound before the k : 

 this cry has been variously written twink, spink, pink, bink, and fink ; it is usually 

 uttered twice only by our Chaffinch, but the Madeiran Chaffinch repeats it rapidly 

 four times ; so that it almost leads up to his rather monotonous and poor song, 

 the terminal phrase of which is never uttered by my male example. As the song 

 of the Chaffinch is itself sung in rivalry and as a challenge, there is every reason 

 for believing that it has been gradually evolved from the single note of defiance 

 and not from the call-note. 



The nest of this species varies exceedingly ; not, as has been stated, with the 

 deliberate design of the bird to conceal it ; for, if such were the case, this pretty 

 little structure would never be so glaringly conspicuous as it sometimes is; but 

 simply from the fact that, like most birds, the Chaffinch uses those materials 

 which are most handy, provided that they are capable of being woven into a soft 

 warm mass. The nest is most frequently placed in hawthorn hedges, where mim- 

 icry of its environment would be absolutely useless ; preference is given to hedges 

 enclosing orchards, but roadside hedge-rows are often utilized, as also those along 

 the margins of woods ; the forks of young fruit-trees and the boughs of old apple- 

 trees are sometimes selected as nesting-sites, and Seebohm speaks of the "lichen- 

 and moss-covered branches of the birch- and ash-trees, far up in the towering 

 branches of the oak, the alder, and the poplar, and on the lowly branches of the 

 holly, more rarely of the yew, and frequently in the gorse shrubs." I have found 

 it in the yew, but never in gorse. 



* To my (perhaps less musical) ear, it sounds more like phwit. 



