CHAFFINCH 



Fringilla ccelebs 



NE of the commonest of our British birds is the Chaffinch. 

 It is found in all localities in our Islands where 

 there are trees. In bare, treeless districts it is rarely 

 found, though in winter it is known as a common visitor 

 in Shetland. It is common in the wooded districts in 

 Scotland, and is met with, wherever there are trees, in 

 most of the islands off the coast, including the Outer 

 Hebrides. In Ireland it breeds in all suitable localities. 



The haunts of this gaily coloured little bird are the shrubberies, hedge- 

 rows, and woods, and the gardens and orchards round our houses, and there 

 is scarcely any of the above-mentioned places that does not afford a nesting- 

 site for the Chaffinch. In the autumn and winter it may be seen haunting 

 the open commons, stubble-fields, and waste gorse-covered country, where it 

 picks up the seeds of various plants, and it is perhaps best known as an 

 inhabitant of the farm-yards during that season of the year, where its cheery 

 'tweet, tweet; or ' pink, pink,' is often heard. 



The song of the Chaffinch is rather a monotonous performance, and may 

 be represented thus on paper, ' Twcc-twec-twcc-cliup-clnlp-cln'tp-clioo-cltoo-kitti- 

 warow ' ; yet, as it is the first song which welcomes the advent of spring, it 

 is very pleasant, and the little songster seems to put his whole soul into it. 

 He is a very lively, pert little bird, and attracts the attention at once, as he 

 sits on some twig by the roadside, or pecks about on the road, and his song 

 may be heard constantly from the beginning of March to well on in July, and 

 occasionally in the autumn, after the moulting-season is over. During the 

 breeding-season the male has a note peculiar to himself, rather like the call 

 of the Willow Wren, only much sharper and louder, something like ' Whit, 

 whit,' occasionally lengthened into ' Weet, weet' 



During the winter the Chaffinch retires to roost in the thick evergreens 

 in most of our shrubberies, but rarely builds its nest in such localities, 



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