54 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



up and facing each other, before the spring and the 

 click of the beaks crouched down and stretched their 

 necks in a wicked way along the grass. The attitude 

 was snake-like ; it gave me the idea more of reptiles 

 than of birds at war. The clicking sound is not 

 always the result of a blow ; the thrushes in this 

 duel made the sound as they flew down to fight; 

 and then it must have been from the savage snap- 

 ping of the beaks. 



These song thrush duels begin at the time when 

 the fire of life burns at its brightest in our birds. 

 How it burns in the chaffinch ! By the opening 

 of May the cock chaffinch has reached, I think, his 

 prime of polish. Bullfinches, plump and boldly 

 coloured, and goldfinches, so delicately built brought 

 to the fairest finish of shape are more effective at 

 a glance than the chaffinch. But we do not notice 

 them in their wild state waxing and waxing in colour 

 and shine, as we notice the chaffinch. The winter 

 bullfinch a warming sight in the bare thorn hedges 

 of the lane at the edge of the wood is as good to 

 look at as the May bullfinch ; we see the same 

 smoke-grey mantle, the splendid contrasts of pure 

 white and blue black, whilst the red of December 

 with the bullfinch is very much the red of May. 

 But for two or three months, February, March, and 

 April, there is the roadside chaffinch the bird of 

 the country roadside in England growing more and 

 more burnished. Finally, in May, what a burning 



