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CHAFFINCH. 
females, at least in the proportion of fifty or sixty to 
one; in this respect resembling the chaffinch, so aptly and 
beautifully named by Linnseus ' coelebs,' or the bachelor ; 
immense flocks of the females migrating, and leaving their 
mates during the winter. 
And by the way, this said Chaffinch, or Pink as he 
is often called, is a prime favourite of mine, and though he 
is certainly guilty of some indiscretion in pulling up young- 
radishes and leaving their white stalks strewed on the 
ground, yet that were a hard-hearted gardener who would 
not forgive him this failing in consideration of the good 
service he afterwards performs wlien the apple and pear 
leaves are woven together by the grubs of a little worthless 
moth, and so smothered and choked, that the crop is sure 
to fail if there are neither pinks nor titmice to abate the 
nuisance. It is then that the pink appears in his most 
amiable character : it is then that his bride is sitting on 
her pattern of a nest, the neatest and most compact of all 
nests, and he spends all his time in routing out the grubs 
from the web-joined leaves, and bearing them to his lady 
love, or perhaps to the nestlings who have just burst the 
shell, and are yet too tender to be abandoned by their 
mother. The saucy bluecap himself is not more expert in 
this grub-hunting, nor can he cheer us, as does the pink, 
with a sweet and merry song. I must, however, confess, 
that that same song, cheerful and merry and sweet though 
it be, often comes too soon, long, long before the sun lias 
power to warm us, and then sounds rather tantalizing,— 
the semblance without the reality of spring. 
The Blackcap is abundant with us: it comes on the 
13th of April, and stays and sings all the summer through. 
Nothing ever delights me more than the song of this bird. 
