NESTLING CHAFFINCHES. 
of this bird. Perhaps association of ideas may add a trifle to 
the value of its melody, for when I hear the first note of the 
chaffinch, I know that winter is on the eve of his departure, 
and that sunshine and fine weather are not far off. * * * 
The chaffinch never sings on the wing, but it warbles incessantly 
on the trees, and on the hedgerows, from the early part of Feb- 
ruary to the second week in July ; and then (if the bird be in 
a state of freedom) its song entirely ceases. You may hear 
the thrush, the lark, the robin, and the wren, sing from time 
to time in the dreary months of winter ; but you will never, by 
any chance, hear one single note of melody from the chaffinch. 
Its power of song has sunk into a deep and long-lasting trance, 
not to be aroused by any casualty whatever. * * # We 
are told that in the winter season, the female chaffinches sepa- 
rate from the males, and migrate into distant countries. I 
have not been able to ascertain that so ungallant a divorce 
takes place in this part of the country (Yorkshire). The 
chaffinches assemble here with their congeners, during the 
period of frost and snow, and you may count amongst them . 
as many females as males.” 
It may be mentioned that the chaffinch’s scientific appel- 
lation is ccelebs, meaning bachelor. 
To Judge the Hen from the Cock-bird. — The plumage of 
the chaffinch is invariable in colour. The fore-part of the head 
is black ; the back part, and extending over to the nape of the 
neck, blue. The blue shades off into olive-tinted chestnut, and 
again to a grey-green to the stump of the tail. The tail itself 
is black and grey, and on each of the two outer feathers there 
is a peculiar wedge-shaped white spot. From the root of the 
lower half of the beak to the extremity of the under part of 
the body the colour is reddish chestnut. The male is easily to 
be distinguished from the female bird; the latter is smaller, 
and the under part of its body is very different in appearance 
from that of the male. 
Hestling Chaffinches. — A bird-dealer will ask as much as 
six or seven shillings for a good chaffinch ; but the boy of enter- 
prise will save his money and, at the same time derive con- 
siderable instruction and amusement in catching and training 
one for himself. 
In the first place, he can go nesting for chaffinches, which, 
by-the-bye, is a sport that requires much tact and patience to 
be practised successfully, as the cunning little fellow so matches 
the colour of the outside of his house with the bough on which it 
