WOODLAND BIRDS' ALARM CRIES 103 



There is another noise of birds in all woods and 

 copses in the silent season which is familiar to every 

 one the sudden excited cries they utter at the sight of 

 some prowling animal fox, cat, or stoat. Even in the 

 darkest, stillest woods these little tempests of noise occa- 

 sionally break out, for no sooner does one bird utter the 

 alarm cry than all within hearing hasten to the spot to 

 increase the tumult. These tempests are of two kinds 

 the greater and lesser; in the first jays, blackbirds, 

 and missel-thrushes take part, the magpie, too, if he is 

 in the wood, and almost invariably the outcry is caused 

 by the appearance of one of the animals just named. 

 In the smaller outbreaks, which are far more frequent, 

 none of these birds take any part, not even the excitable 

 blackbird, in spite of his readiness to make a noise on 

 the least provocation. Only the smaller birds are con- 

 cerned here, from the chaffinch down ; and the weasel is, I 

 believe, almost always the exciting cause. If it be as I 

 think, a curious thing is that birds like the chaffinch and 

 the tits, which have their nests placed out of its reach, 

 should be so overcome at the sight of this minute 

 creature which hunts on the ground, and which black- 

 birds and jays refuse to notice in spite of the outrageous 

 din of the finches. The chaffinch is invariably first and 

 loudest in these outbreaks ; a dozen or twenty times a 

 day, even in July and August, you will hear his loud 

 passionate pink-pink calling on all of his kind to join 

 him, and by-and-by, if you can succeed in getting to 

 the spot, you will hear other species joining in the 



