MARCH 71 



down, for the notes are too few and lack the proper 

 ending. Convinced that there is something wrong 

 both with time and tune, the chaffinch then begins 

 to practise, and in a week or so, having got " the hang 

 of the thing," trolls out the rollicking catch which we 

 hear from every budding orchard tree. There is, too, 

 individual variation, some birds being gifted above 

 their fellows. This fact is well-known to the bird- 

 keeping fraternity in many of our large towns, where a 

 " chaffinch contest " is a popular fixture, the award going 

 to the owner of the bird which can rattle out the com- 

 plete number of notes most frequently in a given time. 

 Is there in bird-song anything comparable to dialect 

 and provincial accent ? Most certainly, and the 

 chaffinch again gives a case in point, for local variations 

 may be noticed even in Britain, and abroad they 

 become much more marked. In a German forest 

 the chaffinches ended their song with a sharp 

 " tchick " which we never hear in England. In 

 the chiffchaff's simple ditty, which gives the bird 

 its name, there seems little scope for variation, yet 

 hearing it in the Pyrenees one may well feel a doubt 

 as to authorship, and in the Canary Islands may quite 

 fail to recognise the performer. Individual thrushes, 

 too, have a preference for certain notes. Did not one 

 particular bird weary us by his ceaseless offer of 

 " fresh herrin', fresh herrin' " from the elm-tops all 

 through a sunny June ? But the thrush is an 



