8o WITHIN AN HOUR OF LONDON TOWN. 



all, or, as he is called in Germany, the " noble 

 finch." It is unnecessary to describe the plumage 

 of this bird, so common and so well known, the pet 

 of the schoolboy and the favourite of the coster- 

 monger, who will have his " bloomin' chawfinch." 

 Many are the singing-matches in which he takes 

 part, and the time and order kept by the chaffinches 

 when singing together might be imitated with ad- 

 vantage by many a musical assembly 



The chaffinch is the bird of the Dials ; and he 

 really seems to enter into the spirit of the thing. 

 No other bird used by the fowler calls so heartily in 

 order to bring others within reach of net or limed 

 twigs as the chaffinch. 



He is a bird of high spirit, and, like a game-cock, 

 answers a challenge directly. The green lanes and 

 the elm-trees by the roadside are his resorts. I 

 have seen him captured there many a time. 



A man comes along the road with a small cage 

 under his arm tied up in a handkerchief. In his 

 hand he has a stuffed chaffinch in the attitude of 

 challenging. Hearing the song of the chaffinch 

 from the trees, he proceeds to fix his stuffed bird 

 on a sloping portion of the trunk of one of the elms. 



