igo WILD BIRDS 



the districts where I have spent much time it is 

 always familiar. There are goldfinch districts, 

 and there is one district where the goldfinch, after 

 the linnet and the greenfinch, is the most abundant 

 of the finches. It might be unwise to name the 

 spot, but I am sure of what I say, for it is borne out 

 by a friend who has a wonderful eye for birds. I 

 think he would also say that, in this singular district, 

 as goldfinch is commoner than chaffinch so is cirl 

 bunting commoner than yellow hammer. 



If I go there at any time of year I know I am 

 quite sure to see goldfinches in pairs or parties, and 

 I shall hear the " bubble " of a cirl bunting. But 

 for one goldfinch stronghold there are a hundred 

 bullfinch strongholds. In Sussex the bonny bull- 

 finch is as common as in many places in Surrey 

 and Hampshire. His soft, charming call that, like 

 the redbreast's strain and the ringdove's coo, has the 

 plaintive note, is constant through the winter 

 far more constant than the " pink ! " of the 

 chaffinch. 



I dare say the bullfinches are among the half- 

 migrants, and that many wander from their spring 

 and summer haunts. But so many remain faithful 

 to the same favourite spots throughout the year that 

 I call them sure " residents." The bullfinch in his 

 fondness for a woodside land reminds me of a 

 campanula the nettle-leaved bell flower. He is a 

 true wood-finch, truer than chaffinch, greenfinch, 

 or linnet, but I think he is still more a bird of the 

 woodside lane. In some tall and rank strip of hedge 



