NOTES ON THE BREEDING OF THE CHAFFINCH. 197% 
ery accompanies the act of coition, and, if so, it is important if the 
note is sometimes heard when the two sexes are swooping together. 
It seems to imply that coition may actually occur in the air. 
The full rattle is also deserving of observation in relation to 
the song of the bird, for the greater part of the song is of much 
the same character as this exclamation; and it is probable that if 
this full sound had been originally employed during coition, it 
might have been afterwards employed for the purposes of sugges- 
tion, and in course of time might have been elaborated into a com- 
paratively long strain. I venture to think that ornithologists will 
allow that I have elsewhere (‘ Evolution of Bird-Song’) adduced 
some reasons for the theory of the development of certain songs 
(as well as certain alarms) from a repetition of short cries, and the 
song of the Chaffinch is not without indications of a similar history. 
Dr. Butler tells me that the song of the Chaffinch is popularly 
rendered— 
‘¢In another month will come a Wheatear.”’ 
The first few notes never show much variation, and in early 
spring they may sometimes be heard in the form of mere repe- 
titions of the “‘chirri.” The middle of the song consists of a 
rattling repetition of the same character-as the full rattle I have 
just described. ‘lhe last syllables, ‘‘ wheatear,” have always 
seemed to me to be very interesting, as relating the song of the 
Chaffinch to those of the Greenfinch and Lesser Redpoll. The 
“wheat” is greatly varied in loudness, and is very often wholly 
absent, or its place is occupied by a sound like ‘“‘ tissi.” 
Near Eltham, in April and May, some of the male Chaffinches 
have a loud single alarm-cry, “ zee,”’ which can be heard through 
all the chorus of birds. This note is sometimes given in the 
song, but only at one particular part. It then takes the place of 
the hard penultimate note, “ wheat,” and whenever given it ends 
the strain. I called the attention of Mr. A. Holte Macpherson to 
this note, and he, like myself, had never heard it elsewhere. It 
seems to me to be a survival from an earlier period. The Chaf- 
finch seems to be losing all trace of this danger-cry, and to be 
developing instead the full love-rattle. The ‘‘chirri,’” and the 
“love-rattle,” and the ‘‘zee,” uttered in succession, would con- 
stitute an excellent “skeleton” of the Chaffinch’s song, and 
especially so if the first two cries were each repeated a few times, 
