54 
CHAFFINCH. 
them to the like localities. Still later on in the year thej 
assemble in stack-yards, and are to be met with in ever} 
direction, searching for food, in orchards, gardens, and fields 
by hedge-row sides, along open roads, in copses and woods 
and near houses. Towards the end of March the flock} 
break up, and in April preparations for an addition of familj 
are made. Mr. Knapp, the author of the ‘Journal of s 
Naturalist,’ says that in Gloucestershire no separation of the 
kind above spoken of takes place in the winter. 
The Chaffinch is considered to act the useful part of a 
sentinel for other birds, by uttering a note of alarm, and sc 
giving them timely notice of approaching danger. No bird 
is also more ready to join with others in mobbing any un¬ 
welcome intruder, whether in the shape of cat or weasel, owl 
or cuckoo; nor is any more neat in personal characteristics. 
Even in the depth of winter, when the pools are covered with 
ice, he may be seen washing in some place that affords a 
lavatory to him, and then he flies off to some neighbouring 
branch, where he preens and dries his feathers. It is a sprightly 
species, and confident in behaviour, allowing often the very 
near advance of observers or passers by, without exhibiting 
much alarm. The male bird, when not at rest, usually raises 
the feathers of the head to a trifling extent in the way of a 
crest. 
Their flight, which on occasion is protracted, is rather rapid 
and somewhat undulated, being performed by quickly-repeated 
flappings, with short intervals of cessation. Their movement 
from the ground to a tree, when disturbed by your too near 
approach, is singularly quick—an upward dart, executed with 
scarce any apparent effort. They alight also in an abrupt 
manner, and when on the ground proceed by a succession of 
very short leaps. They roost at night in thick hedge-rows, 
as also among evergreens in plantations and shrubberies. 
The food of the Chaffinch consists of grain, seeds, and the 
tender leaves of young plants, as also of insects; and these 
latter it may sometimes, especially in the early months of 
the spring, be seen hawking after for a little way, somewhat 
after the manner of the Flycatcher. I copy the following 
pleasing and complete account of this part of the Natural 
Historjr of our present subject, from a paper in the ‘Zoologist,’ 
pages 297-298, by Archibald Hepburn, Esq.; only first ob¬ 
serving that these birds also swallow small round smooth grains 
of gravel, to aid the process of digestion:—‘The ploughing 
