THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 
229 
indifFerent songsters ; the young ones have only bad 
masters in the old ones, and they, in their turn, can- 
not prove better/' 
This nice observer of the habits and natural pro- 
pensities of the feathered race, enumerates the various 
notes expressive of their passions and wants, which 
is truly entertaining. " The note of tenderness, and 
which is also thought to indicate a change of weather, 
is trif, trif ; its call, or the rallying note it makes 
use of on its passage, and which so often draws it 
within the snares of our birdcatchers, is iak, iak, 
repeated several times ; the cry Jinky Jink, which it 
often repeats, and from which its German name is 
derived, appears, if we may so call it, to be mechani- 
cal and involuntary. But what make it appear to 
still more advantage among other birds, are its clear 
and trilling tones, that seem almost to approach to 
words. In fact, its warbling is less a song than a 
kind of battementf to make use of a French word, 
and is expressed in German by the word schlag 
(trill), which is used to designate its song, as well as 
the nightingale's. Some chaffinches have two, three, 
four, even live battemens, each consisting of several 
strains, and lasting several minutes. 
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