F R I N G I L L I D IE. 



545 



for tae sparrows and the buntings, which have large 

 craws, subsist much, and feed their young wholly, 

 upon insects. The true position of the chaffinch 

 genus we consider to be intermediate between the 

 typical finches and the Spizce, or nonpareils, of the 

 American continent. 



The shape of the bill is, in the chaffinch genus, 

 conical, longer than deep, straight and pointed, and 

 having the conical edges entire ; they are of a longer 

 and more slender form than the grosbeaks, and the 

 bill is less strong and thick, and less swollen at the 

 base, than in those birds. Their habits are also less 

 arboreal, and they obtain their food more upon the 

 ground, where they sometimes hop about, but more 

 generally, when feeding, use a peculiar even walking 

 mode of progression, advancing by quick short steps, 

 as all must have noticed who have observed a com- 

 mon chaffinch feeding on the road. The plumage is, 

 in winter, generally very much fringed with terminal 

 edgings, insomuch that their colours often appear 

 different at different seasons of the year ; but, as they 

 increase in age, they have less and less of these 

 edgings at every moult, as is indeed the case with all 

 other birds the feathers of which are thus tipped. 



The common chaffinch (FringUla ccslebs of Lin- 

 naeus) is a handsome and a gay and sprightly bird, 

 very abundant in most parts of the British islands, 

 and much too well knowji to require its plumage 

 being described. It is termed ccelebs, or the bachelor, 

 from the habit which the females have, in its more 

 northern localities, of migrating in winter a little to 

 the southward, while the males continue about their 

 summer residence all the year. This separation of 

 the sexes is, however, comparatively very partial in 

 the British islands, many female chaffinches remaining 

 throughout the winter, even in the northern parts 

 of Scotland ; but it is observed, sometimes, in cold 

 seasons, even in the southern counties of England ; 

 and indeed, flocks of hen chaffinches, from the 

 northern parts, may occasionally be seen in the south 

 of England almost every winter, while the majority 

 of resident individuals continue solitary. , 



The chaffinch has a simple and pleasing song, 

 rendered, however, more so by its associations with 

 early spring, this bird being one of our earliest 

 songsters, and occasionally treating us with a repeti- 

 tion of its short stave, even in autumn. There is no 

 variation in its music, and it consists but of a simple 

 run of notes, reiterated over and over again, till it 

 becomes tiresome. Yet this monotonous stave seems 

 to be admired most unaccountably by our continental 

 neighbours, with whom the chaffinch is one of the 

 commonest and most favourite cage-birds, so much 

 so, that Bechstein, a professed " bird-fancier," devotes 

 no less than seven pages of his work to a dissertation 

 on its song, and five or six more to the mode of cap- 

 turing it, and manner of treating it in confinement. 

 " To such an extent," he says, " is the passion for 

 this bird carried in Thuringia, and those which sing 

 well are sought for with such avidity, that scarcely a 

 single chaffinch that warbles tolerably can be found 

 in the province. As soon as one arrives from a 

 neighbouring county, whose notes appear good, all 

 the bird-catchers are after it, and do not give up the 

 pursuit till they have secured the prize." 



" This bird," he observes, " is so great a favourite 

 in Germany, that not a single tone of its voice has 

 escaped the experienced ears of our bird-fanciers. 

 They have observed its nicest shades, and are con- 



NAT. HIST. VOL. II. 



tinually endeavouring to improve and perfect it. I 

 confess I am myself one of its warmest admirers. 

 I have constantly around me the best songsters of 

 the species, and, if I liked, could write a good-sized 

 volume on all the details of its music," &c. And he 

 does distinguish, by separate names, as many as eight 

 variations, or simple modifications of its lay. 



" In Ruhl," he relates, " a large manufacturing 

 village in Thuringia, the inhabitants, mostly cutlers 

 have such a passion for chaffinches, that some have 

 gone ninety miles from home to take, with bird-lime, 

 one of these birds, distinguished by its song, and have 

 given one of their cows for a fine songster ; from which 

 has arisen a common expression among them, that 

 such a chaffinch is worth a cow. A common work- 

 man will give a louis (for (sixteen shillings) for a 

 chaffinch he admires, and willingly live on bread and 

 water to gain the money." In England there are 

 very few indeed who think the chaffinch worth 

 keeping in a cage. 



This species builds a remarkably beautiful nest, 

 placing it in various situations upon the trees and 

 bushes, sometimes amid the ivy, encircling their 

 trunks, at other times in the forks of smaller 

 branches, and very frequently in old apple-trees, over- 

 grown with lichens and moss. It is formed of differ- 

 ent mosses and lichens, closely interwoven with wool, 

 and warmly lined with feathers and hair, in its out- 

 ward appearance always accordant with the particular 

 situation. The eggs are four or five in number, of a 

 bluish white, tinged more or less with pink, and 

 marked with streaks and spots of purplish red. It is 

 widely dispersed, and found in all parts of Europe. 



THE MOUNTAIN CHAFFINCH (F. montifringilla of 

 Linnaeus) we have already described under the name 

 of BRAMBLE-FINCH. There are other species inhabit- 

 ing Asia, but perfectly similar, we believe, in their 

 habits to the common chaffinch. Closely allied to 

 them are the different snow finches, which are still 

 less arboreal in habit, and have smaller bills ; their 

 colours also are more uniform and less brilliant. 



THE ALPINE SNOW-FINCH (F. nivalis of Linnaeus) 

 is a species very common upon the Alps and Pyren- 

 ees, with plumage chiefly ash colour above, and 

 whitish beneath, mottled with black and white ; the 

 bill is of a glossy black. This bird and another allied 

 to our common hedgechanter, the Accentor alpinus, 

 inhabits higher up the European mountains than any 

 other. It is found in winter as far north as the mid- 

 dle of Germany, where it associates often with the 

 mountain chaffinch, but is even more insectivorous 

 than that species. It sings a great deal, though there 

 is nothing in the quality of its song to recommend it 

 to particular notice. According to Temminck it 

 builds its nest upon the rocks, or in their chinks and 

 crevices, and lays about five eggs of a pale green, 

 with faint lines and spots of ash colour, intermixed 

 with a few spots of dark green. Its food consists of 

 the seeds of the pine and larch, together with various 

 kinds of insects. 



THE AMERICAN SNOW-FINCH (F. hyemales) came 

 under the observation of the talented ornithologist, 

 Wilson, and accordingly we are furnished by him 

 with a detailed and graphic description of its peculiar 

 manners. " Small and insignificant," he observes, " as 

 this well known species is, it is by far the most nume- 

 rous, as well as the most extensively disseminated, of 

 all the feathered tribes that visit us from the frozen 

 regions of the north, their migration extending from 

 M M 



