60 



MY LIFE AS A NATURALIST 



whither it had gone, for he did not realise that the bold woodland 

 visitor was sedately perched on his own person, signalising its 

 bravado by vociferously uttering its wild, exultant cry ! 



'^^fSSfcl v \; N _ 



FIG. 23. WOODPECKER ON BOY'S HEAD. 



The Chaffinch is a prominent country bird. It is compara- 

 tively tame and confiding, although it does not often come into 

 our gardens. It has a pleasant walking gait, and, when flying, 

 the white bars upon the wing are very conspicuous. A year 

 ago I watched one of these Finches practising the difficult art 

 of catching insects upon the wing, after the manner of a Fly- 

 catcher. Its efforts were ludicrous in the extreme, and so clumsy 

 were its movements that, on one occasion, it turned a series of 

 complete somersaults in the air, having lost its balance, and did 

 not regain self-control until it had almost reached the ground. 

 I did not think any more of this incident until May of this year, 

 when, to my surprise, I watched two Chaffinches very cleverly 

 fly-catching in the same place as the bird that I had located 

 twelve months previous. The improvement made was most 



