132 THE CHAFFINCH. 



than he hecomes enraged, pounces on him like a bird of prey, and is caught 

 with the birdlime ; his attack is often so violent that sometimes the bird 

 ot call is killed by the stroke of its adversary. The following is a surer 

 method : a soft, narrow leather band is fastened round a male, to which 

 is attached a string a foot long, fastened by a peg, which allows it but a 

 short space to range. This bird, as we have already said, is called, in 

 birdcatchers' language, a pcrcher. A circle of bird-lime is made just beyond 

 its reach, and a cage with a chaffinch, accustomed to sing either in the shade 

 or exposed, is placed under a neighbouring bush ; as soon as this last 

 begins his song, which should be a natural one, not any learned in con- 

 finement, the chaffinch that is to be procured darts from the tree like an 

 arrow on the percher, which it mistakes for the songster, and remains fixed 

 by the birdlime. This new prisoner will sing the same year if it is caught 

 before Whitsuntide : if after, it will never sing, but will die, evidently from 

 grief at being separated from its female and young ones. A birdcatcher, 

 cruel as he is stupid, who, without the least reflection, only thinks of grati- 

 fying his ridiculous passion for birdcatching, may in an hour deprive ten or 

 twelve females of their beloved companions, their protectors, and numerous 

 young ones of their father, purveyor, and support : such thoughtless cruelty 

 is, alas ! only too common in Germany. As soon as the young chaffinches 

 have left the nest, the birdcatchers are very active in discovering the places 

 where at noon they are accustomed to drink ; there they set perches covered 

 with birdlime, and by this means many of these little unwary creatures are 

 taken. However little memory one of these birds may have, it is capable 

 of learning a good song, and being more robust than those brought up from 

 the nest, bird-dealers make a good deal of them. They collect a great 

 many, being sure that some will succeed amongst them. 



ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES. The first of these is undoubtedly the song of the 

 bird ; but our amateurs are not less attentive to the different notes that 

 express its passions and wants. The note of tenderness, and which is also 

 thought to indicate a change of weather, is trif, trif : its call, or the rally- 

 ing note it makes use of on its passage, and which so often draws it within 

 the snares of our birdcatchers, is tak, 'iak, repeated several times ; the cry 

 fink, fink, which it often repeats, and from which its German name is 

 derived, appears, if we may so call it, to be mechanical and involuntary. 

 But what makes it appear to still more advantage among other birds are its 

 clear and trilling tones, that seem almost to approach to words ; in fact, its 

 warbling is less a song than a kind of battement, to make use of a French 

 word, and is expressed in German by the word schlag (trill), which is used 

 to designate its song as well as the nightingale's. Some chaffinches have 

 two, three, four, and even five different battemens, each consisting of seve- 

 ral strains, and lasting several minutes. This bird is so great a favourite 

 in Germany, that not a single tone of its voice has escaped the experienced 

 ears of our bird-fanciers. They have observed its nicest shades, and are 

 continually endeavouring to improve and perfect it. I confess I am myself 

 one of its warmest admirers ; I have constantly around me the best song- 

 sters of its species, and if I liked I could write a good sized volume on all 

 *he details of its mu&ir;, but I will confine myself to that which bears most 

 on this subject, 



