THROUGH THE YEAR 107 



it pretty and petite, not poor, and many people, if 

 they listen to green linnets much in August, will 

 agree. 



A long summer drought never silenced the green- 

 finch. The hottest hours of the hottest day in 

 July silenced all the choir but him. But through 

 the afternoons he sang on from the shelter if he 

 needed shelter of the ilex or sycamore on the lawn ; 

 and he sang and still sings through August as if 

 it was May and the mating time. 



" Full-throated ease " does not fit this affable, 

 companionable little garden bird, but his song is 

 never fresher and livelier than now. He is in the 

 form which the glowing chaffinch shows in the 

 immense days of early June whilst the year is at 

 its supreme period the Fresh yet the Full. It is 

 very much with the greenfinch as it is with the willow 

 warbler ; there is not a harsh note in his lay, though 

 the quality of it is inferior to the willow warbler's. 



The build of the greenfinch reminds one a little 

 of the house sparrow. It lacks the refined finch 

 lines, the shapeliness of the cock chaffinch, the 

 delicacy of that dainty small finch of Southern 

 Europe, the serin. But in his wild state the cock 

 greenfinch is finely dressed. Even in winter, flock- 

 ing in the hedgerows with a sparrow mob, he is 

 boldly coloured ; and in August he is one of the 

 brightest of our small birds in woodpecker green 

 and gold. It is a mistake to overlook greenfinches. 

 They sing on the days when bird song is scarcest, 

 and, like the yellowhammers, nesting late in the 



