7i 
food in the hedges, the gardens, and the farm-yards. It is ^ 
a handsome bird, stoutly, but by no means clumsily made ; 
and the colours of the plumage, although not brilliant, are ^ 
yet so diversified and arranged as to produce a very pleasing . .^^ 
elFect. We need scarcely give a more minute description of ^ 
the Shilfa, or Shellapple, as it is often called, for most i\ 
persons have seen a chaffinch, and heard its sharp twinkj j; 
twink ! and more lengthened troeet, tweet, tweet ! terminating ^ 
sometimes with churr-ee ! Its wild notes are soft and mel- ^ 
low, but have little variety ; they fire first heard very early ^ 
in the year, for Chaffy seems at all times ambitious to open jjj 
the vernal chorus, and to make a start before any other of 
the feathered musicians have got their instruments in order, ^j. 
A curious circumstance connected with the natural history 
of chaffinches is, that the males and females separate during jj 
the winter, and resort to different parts of the country ; 
hence the scientific name ccelebs, or the bachelor, applied to ^ 
this bird. gj 
A truly beautiful piece of workmanship is the nest of the ; [q 
chaffinch — neat and compact, and closely woven of a great 
variety of materials, according to the situation it occupies, 
as it generally closely assimilates in colour with the object ^ 
against which it is placed, such as the trunk of a tree, or ^ 
against a wall to which a fruit tree is nailed, &c. ; the eggs gj 
are four or five in number, have a few spots and irregular ^ 
lines of reddish brown, upon a ground of purplish white or 
grey. Plenty of young birds may be obtained at the proper ^ 
season; they should be taken as soon as the tail feathers 
have begun to grow, for they are precocious fledglings, and j| 
very soon acquire the wild notes of their parents, of which it 
is difficult afterwards to break them. Birds, like boys, 
always remember best what they ought not. They should ^ 
be fed upon the usual food for young birds, and will most ' ^ 
likely do well on it imtil the moulting season, when great 
numbers usually die. A diet of ants' eggs will greatly | 
assist them at this critical period of their prison life ; those 
which pass through it will most likely be strong birds, and p 
very tame. 
Old chaffinches may be lured to^the barn-floor trap, or to 
limed twigs in the spring and autumn, by a good decoy ; in 
winter, nets placed over cleared spaces on which oats are t 
