72 BIRDS OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 



perfunctory affair many naturalists have supposed it. 

 Elaboration of colouring must be collateral with that 

 of courtship. A fortiori, where species are known to 

 pair for life (viz. the hawks), the preliminaries must 

 call forth a deal more of character, effort, emotion and 

 drama than we are willing to grant or than evidence 

 exists to prove. 



IV 



I had many adventures on the outskirts of the 

 town. I would pass half a dozen grey wagtails, 

 sprites of the waterfall, at the east end of the 

 bishop's palace, darting along the bank and leaping 

 into the air to catch flies. The black cravat topping 

 the bright yellow waistcoat had already disappeared, 

 as a lover puts off his airs when his mistress adorns his 

 home and rears his children. There is a steep wood to 

 the east of the town under the wardenship of the 

 " National Trust " (who might with advantage make 

 their notice-boards legible). One day this wood was 

 a forge of chiff-chaffs, hammering on their anvils 

 and bustling out their " Come quick, come quick " to 

 their fellows, to be ready to set off for distant lands. 

 There were perhaps a couple of hundred of them, all 

 the chiff-chaffs of the thousands of trees for miles 

 round. But best of all was a family party of the 

 beautiful black-and-gold-banded siskin, whose rather 

 hoarse, querulous double-note — " why see, why see " 

 (Howard Saunders renders zeisig) — I listened to 

 some time before seeing the birds. Four of them were 

 young, with colours much duller than the parent birds, 

 themselves fallen from the brightness of the nuptial 

 state. I cannot but believe, therefore, that they nested 

 here. Siskins are not shy, but so restless that as they 

 go prancing from tree to tree, making a gymnasium 

 of them like tits, one has much ado to keep up with 

 them. I wonder how many of the worthy citizens of the 

 town are aware that in 1919 a pair of siskins reared 

 their young successfully probably within five minutes' 

 walk of their bishop's palace walls. For siskins breeding 

 in the south are rare, and I believe there are no records 



