264 WrynecTcs. 



stuffed bird in the grass, and descends to fight him, 

 when, as the deceived bird alights, his wings or feet 

 come in contact with the whalebone — sometimes he 

 perches on it — and the lime holds him fast. 



At that season (March) tlie cock birds have an 

 irresistible inclination to do battle ; they are cease- 

 lessly challenging each other, and the fowler takes 

 advantage of it to snare them. Now this man said 

 that these chaffinches sold for 6s. the dozen, and that 

 when the birds were ' on,' as he called it, he could 

 catch five dozen a day. In a walk of four or five 

 miles I passed half-a-dozen such fellows, with cages 

 and stuffed chaffinches. This alone proves that cock 

 chaffinches are very numerous in spring. Where, 

 then, are they in winter, if the flocks of chaffinches at 

 that period consist almost exclusively of female birds ? 

 Probably the}' fly in small bodies of three or four, or 

 singly, and so escape observation. But this division 

 of the sexes presents a curious resemblance to the 

 social customs discovered amongst certain savages. 

 During the winter the birds separate, and the females 

 ' pack.' In the spring the males appear, and, after a 

 period of fighting for the mastery, pair, and the nests 

 are built. After the young are reared, song ceases, 

 and the old haunts are deserted. This summer I was 

 much struck with this partial migration, perhaps the 

 more so because observed in a fresh locality. 



During the spring and summer I dail}" followed a 

 road for some three miles, which I had found to pass 

 through a district much frequented hy birds. The 

 birch coppice so favored by nightingales was that 

 waj^ ; and, by-the-bj^ the wrynecks were almost 

 equally numerous ; and the question has occurred to 



