54 CHAFFINCH. 



them to the like localities. Still later on in the year they 

 assemble in stack-yards, and are to be met with in every 

 direction, searching for food, in orchards, gardens, and fields, 

 by hedge-row sides, along open roads, in copses and woods, 

 and near houses. Towards the end of March the flocks 

 break up, and in April preparations for an addition of family 

 are made. Mr. Knapp, the author of the 'Journal of a 

 Naturalist,' says that in Gloucestershire no separation of the 

 kind above spoken of takes place in the winter. 



The Chaffinch is considered to act the useful part of a 

 sentinel for other birds, by uttering a note of alarm, and so 

 giving them timely notice of approaching danger. No bird 

 is also more ready to join with others in mobbing any un- 

 welcome intruder, whether in the shape of cat or weasel, owl 

 or cuckoo; nor is any more neat in personal characteristics. 

 Even in the depth of winter, when the pools are covered with 

 ice, he may be seen washing in some place that affords a 

 lavatory to him, and then he flies off to some neighbouring 

 branch, where he preens and dries his feathers. It is a sprightly 

 species, and confident in behaviour, allowing often the very 

 near advance of observers or passers by, without exhibiting 

 much alarm. The male bird, when not at rest, usually raises 

 the feathers of the head to a trifling extent in the way of a 

 crest. 



Their flight, which on occasion is protracted, is rather rapid 

 and somewhat undulated, being performed by quickly-repeated 

 flappings, with short intervals of cessation. Their movement 

 from the ground to a tree, when disturbed by your too near 

 approach, is singularly quick an upward dart, executed with 

 scarce any apparent effort. They alight also in an abrupt 

 manner, and when on the ground proceed by a succession of 

 very short leaps. They roost at night in thick hedge-rows, 

 as also among evergreens in plantations and shrubberies. 



The food of the Chaffinch consists of grain, seeds, and the 

 tender leaves of young plants, as also of insects; and these 

 latter it may sometimes, especially in the early months of 

 the spring, be seen hawking after for a little way, somewhat 

 after the manner of the Flycatcher. I copy the following 

 pleasing and complete account of this part of the Natural 

 History of our present subject, from a paper in the 'Zoologist,' 

 pages 297-298, by Archibald Hepburn, Esq.; only first ob- 

 serving that these birds also swallow small round smooth grains 

 of gravel, to aid the process of digestion: 'The ploughing 



