70 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



course he speaks of a migration from his own country, 

 Sweden. Gilbert White, referring to the same bird and 

 its habits, as observed by him in Hampshire, after a fashion 

 confirms the statement of the Swedish naturalist. He says, 

 "Vast flocks of hen Chaffinches appear with us in winter, 

 without any cocks among them." Such partition of the 

 sexes does not take place here in Herefordshire; at least, 

 it has not come under my observation. Nor does it in 

 the north of Ireland, where, in my earlier days, I was 

 well acquainted with the habits of the Chaffinch, there 

 erroneously called Bullfinch, or still more erroneously, 

 < Bullflinch." According to Mr. Knapp, author of 

 " The Journal of a Naturalist/ 7 neither is there such a 

 separation in the adjoining county of Gloucester. So 

 far as I have seen, in all the flocks frequenting this 

 neighbourhood for several winters back, the two sexes 

 have been in about equal numbers ; and where only three 

 or four birds are seen together, one or two of them will 

 be red-breasted. Morris, in his book, " British Birds/' 

 while chronicling the circumstance of the sexes so keep- 

 ing apart which he believes to be a fact says : " I am 

 inclined to think that this is most frequent in severe 

 winters." My experience of this winter on the Wye 

 falsifies this conjectural assertion. It has been one of 

 the severest ; yet throughout its severity the flocks of 

 Chaffinches have been composed of males and females, 

 as many of the one sex as the other. 



There are people who speak of the Chaffinch as an un- 

 interesting bird, an. assertion showing little of either sense 

 or taste, and an opinion with nothing to support it, save 

 it be the plenteousness of the creature so harshly judged. 

 Were Chaffinches scarce with us as Java sparrows, no 

 doubt they would be more appreciated, and, like the last, 



