much in earnest in whatever he does, his character in this respect
offering a strong contrast to that of the goldfinch, siskin, and
various other melodists. They sing at all times, anywhere and anyhow.
With the chaffinch, singing is a business just as important as any
other--feeding, fighting, pairing, and building. He flies to a tree,
and deliberately takes his stand, often on the most commanding twig,
and there delivers his few notes with the utmost energy, and so rapidly
that they almost run into each other, ending with a fine flourish. At
regular intervals of a few seconds the performance is repeated, the
bird standing erect and motionless all the time; until, having given
the fullest and most complete expression to his feelings, he flies
away, to engage elsewhere in some task of another kind.
It is a loud song and a joyous sound--‘gay as a chaffinch’ is a
proverbial saying of the French; but there is also a note of defiance
in the song, as in the crow of a cock. Chaffinches sing, as cocks crow,
against each other, and the music often ends in a combat. It is not, as
some imagine, that there is a spirit of emulation in birds with regard
to their singing--that they are rival musicians, like the shepherds in
the old pastorals, that contended in song for mastery: it is simply
that the cock chaffinch, like the robin and some other species, is a
bird of a jealous and pugnacious disposition, and can brook no other
male chaffinch near him. Another’s singing tells him that another male
is present, and his jealousy is at once excited. If the sound is at a
distance, he will content himself by answering song with song; if near,
he will quickly seek out the singer, and drive him from his chosen
ground. It is this jealous temper of the chaffinch that gives it value
to the bird-fanciers of a base kind.
The chaffinch is first heard before the end of February. He pairs
early in March, and in April begins to build. The nest is placed in a
shrub or tree, in a cleft, or on a horizontal branch. An apple, pear,
or cherry tree in an orchard is a favourite site; but any tree, from
an evergreen in a garden to the largest oak or elm, may be selected,
and the nest may be at any height from the ground from half a dozen
to fifty feet. It is a very beautiful structure, formed outwardly of
lichen, moss, and dry grass, compactly woven together, and mixed with
cobwebs; the cup-shaped inside is lined with hair, vegetable down,
and feathers. In most cases the outer portion of the nest is composed
of materials that give it a close resemblance to the tree it is built
on. Thus, on an oak or apple tree overgrown with grey lichen, or on a
silver birch, the framework is chiefly composed of lichen; but in deep
green bushes evergreen moss is used. The nest is built by the female,
but the male assists in collecting and bringing materials. A fortnight,
or longer, is taken to complete this elaborate nest; but from the
beginning, and even before the nest is begun, the birds exhibit the
greatest excitement and distress if the chosen tree is approached,
flying round and flitting from branch to branch, incessantly uttering
their well-known alarm-notes, usually spelt _pink-pink_ or
_spink-spink_, a clear, penetrating sound, slightly metallic in
character; also another sound, a lower and somewhat harsh note of
anxiety.
The eggs are four or five in number, of a pale bluish green,
spotted and blotched with dull purplish brown. The young are fed on
caterpillars and small insects. The adults, too, subsist chiefly on
insects in summer, seeking for them on the ground, and sometimes
capturing them in the air, like the flycatcher.
In autumn the chaffinches congregate in flocks, and at this season the
separation of the sexes, about which so much has been said since the
days of Linnæus, takes place. Something remains to be known on this
subject. It is beyond dispute that large flocks composed entirely of
birds of one sex are often met with in autumn and winter, both in this
country and on the Continent. The question about which ornithologists
differ is as to whether or not a separation of the sexes takes place
among chaffinches of British race. Seebohm says: ‘It is probable that
this peculiar habit is confined to the birds that come to our shores in
autumn’; and we have it on good authority that no separation of males
from females takes place in the south and west of England. In the month
of September, at one place in Scotland, I observed the male chaffinches
gathered in small parties of three or four to a dozen individuals;
these were the birds belonging to the district; but the females had
vanished. Selby observed the same thing many years ago in Scotland and
the north of England. One can only suppose that the migratory impulse
is a little stronger or earlier in the female of this species, and that
the divergence between the sexes, in this respect, becomes greater as
we go towards the northern limit of its range.
Brambling.
Fringilla montifringilla.
Head, cheeks, nape, and upper part of back black, the feathers (in
winter) tipped with light brown or ash-grey; neck and scapulars pale
orange-brown; wings black variegated with orange-brown and white; rump
and lower parts white; the flanks reddish, with a few dark spots.
_Female_: crown reddish brown, the feathers tipped with grey; a
black streak over the eye; cheeks and neck ash-grey; all the rest as in
the male, but less bright. Length, six and a quarter inches.
* * * * *
The brambling, or mountain-finch, comes nearest in relationship to the
chaffinch, but differs very much in its glossy black, white, and bright
buff colouring, and is a much prettier bird. We do not see it in its
bright nuptial plumage in this country; for it is an arctic species,
breeding in very high latitudes, in birch woods near the limit of
forest growth. Its nest and eggs resemble those of the chaffinch, the
nest being a compact and beautifully shaped fabric that assimilates in
colour to the white and grey bark of the silver birch. The bramblings
arrive in this country during September and October, and are found in
winter throughout Great Britain and Ireland. They are, however, very
irregular in their movements, and do not, like the redwings, return
year after year to the same localities; but, as a rule, where a flock
appears in autumn, there it will remain until the end of winter.
Beech-woods form a great attraction to them, beech-mast being their
favourite food, and where it is abundant they will sometimes congregate
in immense numbers. As a songster the brambling ranks low among the
finches, but the lively chirping and twittering concert of a large
flock on a tree-top, and in the evening, before the birds settle to
roost, has a very pleasing effect.
Linnet.
Linota cannabina.
Forehead and centre of the crown crimson; the rest of the head, nape,
and sides of the neck, mottled brownish grey; mantle chestnut-brown;
wing-feathers blackish, with outer edges white, forming a conspicuous
bar; upper tail-coverts dark brown with whitish margins; tail-feathers
black, narrowly edged with white on the outer and broadly on the inner
webs; chin and throat dull white, striped with greyish brown; breast
crimson; belly dull white; flanks fawn-brown. Length, five inches
and three-quarters. In winter the crimson feathers are concealed by
wide greyish margins. _Female_: duller in colour and without any
crimson.
* * * * *
Next to the goldfinch, the linnet is the most sought after in this
country as a cage-bird, and the demand for linnets is no doubt causing
a great diminution in their numbers. But they are still fairly
abundant, and to be met with in most waste and uncultivated places,
especially where furze-bushes abound.
The linnet is one of the most social of the finches, being found
gathered in small flocks and parties of three, or four, or half a
dozen, even in the middle of the breeding season. When perched or
flying they incessantly call to each other in sharp little chirps and
twittering notes. They are more aërial in habit than most finches, and
take to flight very readily, and fly high, with great velocity; and
when at a great elevation they are often seen to check their rapid
course very suddenly, and dart away in some other direction, or else to
drop plumb down like falling hailstones to the earth. Being so free of
the air, they are great rovers, and, except when engaged in breeding,
are constantly travelling about in the open country at all times of the
year.
In the colour of its plumage the linnet is one of the most variable of
birds: it is common to meet with bird-catchers and bird-fanciers who
hear with surprise, and even with incredulity, that all these birds
of different tints are of one species. The cock linnet never, or very
rarely, puts on his most beautiful colours in captivity, and even in a
state of nature the individuals composing a flock are seen to differ
greatly. Among a dozen birds, perhaps only one will exhibit the perfect
male plumage--the blood-red forehead, grey head, rich chestnut-brown
upper parts, and lovely carmine breast. There is one variety, known
as the lemon linnet, in which the breast is lemon-yellow instead of
carmine-red; and there are other varieties. In song, too, the linnet
greatly varies. When the singer is a good one, and listened to at a
distance not exceeding twenty or thirty yards, the strain is sprightly,
varied, and very agreeable; but the sweetest part is a phrase of two or
three notes which usually comes as a prelude to the song; the sound has
a quality that reminds one of the swallow’s voice, but it is purer, and
suggests a very delicate wind instrument. During the love season the
male sometimes sings on the wing; rising to a height of several yards,
it drops slowly and gracefully down, uttering a series of beautiful
notes and trills.
A furze-bush is the site most often selected for the nest; this is
formed of fine dry grass and fibres, and lined with wool and vegetable
down, sometimes with hair. Four to six eggs are laid, chalky white,
and faintly tinged with blue in ground-colour, and spotted with light
reddish brown and purplish red.
After the breeding season the linnets unite in large flocks, and at
this time there is a southward movement, and large numbers undoubtedly
leave this country to winter elsewhere. But even in the cold season
they are common enough, and their fitful winter-evening concerts, when
they congregate on a tree-top before settling down for the night, are
as pleasant to listen to as the love-song of the male heard in spring
among the blossoming furze and broom.
Lesser Redpoll.
Linota rufescens.
Forehead, lore, and throat black; crown deep crimson; upper parts
reddish brown with dusky streaks; wings and tail dusky, edged with
pale reddish brown; breast glossy rose-red, passing into light
chestnut-brown on the sides; belly and lower tail-coverts dull white.
_Female_: less bright. Length, five and a quarter inches.
* * * * *
[Illustration: FIG. 48.--LESSER REDPOLL. ⅓ natural size.]
The redpoll, or redpole, as it is often written, is a pretty and
interesting little bird of the northern parts of Great Britain. It has
been described by Seebohm as an immature linnet in appearance, but
resembling a siskin in its habits. It is usually called the lesser
redpoll, because it is slightly less in size than the continental
redpoll, which sometimes visits this country in winter. This last
subspecies is the mealy redpoll (_Linota linaria_). A third form
of this wide-ranging little bird, the Greenland redpoll (_Linota
hornemanni_), has been included in the list of British birds on
account of a single specimen having been obtained in this country.
In its lively disposition, its flight, and to some extent in its
language, the redpoll resembles the linnet; but its feeding habits
vary according to the season of the year and the conditions it finds
itself in. In summer it keeps much to the higher branches of the trees,
where it moves deftly about like a siskin or a crested tit in its
search after minute insects and their larvæ; but in winter it feeds
principally on seeds which it finds on the ground. It is fond of the
seeds of the birch-tree. The appearance of a flock of redpolls feeding
among the birches is thus described by Warde Fowler: ‘It is one of the
prettiest sights that our whole calendar of bird life affords to watch
these tiny linnets at work in the delicate birch-boughs. They fear
no human being, and can be approached within a very few yards. They
almost outdo the titmice in the amazing variety of their postures. They
prefer in a general way to be upside down, and decidedly object to the
commonplace attitudes of more solidly built birds.’
The song of the redpoll is described by Seebohm as a short, monotonous
trill, clear, shrill, and not unmusical; and he adds that ‘it might
be said to resemble the rattling of loose cog-wheels.’ It breeds
in suitable localities, chiefly in birch-woods in Scotland, and in
England north of Norfolk and Leicester. It also breeds occasionally in
more southern localities. The nest is made of dry grass and moss on a
foundation of slender twigs, and is well lined with vegetable down,
or with wool and feathers. It is a very neat, cup-shaped nest, and
contains four to six eggs, greenish blue in ground-colour, with spots
and specks of purplish brown.
After the breeding season the redpolls begin to scatter about the
country in small flocks; as autumn approaches these flocks increase
in size, and a southward movement begins, large numbers crossing the
Channel. Many, however, remain to winter at home, and these may be met
with in woods and plantations, leading a vagrant life in small flocks,
and often associating on the trees with titmice, goldcrests, and
siskins.
Twite.
Linota flavirostris.
Upper parts dark brown, the feathers edged with light brown; rump (of
the male) tinged with red; throat tawny brown; breast and belly dull
white, streaked on the flanks with dark brown; beak yellow; feet dark
brown. Length, five and a quarter inches.
* * * * *
The twite, or mountain-linnet, is a bird of the mountain and moorland,
and of the north, being most abundant in the Hebrides; but it also
breeds in hilly districts throughout Scotland, and in suitable
localities in the northern and midland counties. In the south it is a
winter visitor, and is then found associating with the linnet, which
it very closely resembles in flight, habits, and appearance; when near
it may be distinguished by its shriller voice, and by its longer tail,
which makes it look slimmer. In its song, too, the twite resembles the
linnet, and, like that bird, occasionally sings on the wing; but its
music is wanting in the finer sounds--just as its plumage is without
the lovely carmine tint--of the other species.
The nest is placed in a bunch of heather, or beneath it, on the ground,
and sometimes in a furze-bush. It is made of dry grass, moss, and
wool, lined with hair and fur. The eggs are five or six in number, and
are like the linnet’s in colour.
In autumn the twites unite in large flocks, and visit the stubbles and
ploughed lands.
Bullfinch.
Pyrrhula europæa
[Illustration: FIG. 49.--BULLFINCH. ⅓ natural size.]
Crown, throat, region round the beak, wings, and tail lustrous
purple-black; upper part of the back bluish ash; ear-coverts, sides of
the neck, breast, and belly red; lower tail-coverts dull white; a broad
buff and grey band across the wing. Length, six and a quarter inches.
* * * * *
The bullfinch stands out among British finches with a strange
distinctness. He is gaily coloured, and the arrangement of colours is
a striking one--glossy black, blue-grey, and pure white above, and a
fine red beneath. This is described in the books as ‘brickred’; and
there is no doubt that, among the thousand and more shades of the less
vivid red seen in bricks taken fresh from the kiln, the exact tint
of the bullfinch might be matched. In the same way you could match
the most delicate floral red--that which we see in the spikes of the
red horse-chestnut, and the almond blossom, and the briar rose. The
earthy, uniform red of weathered bricks is not the colour of our
bird. The beauty of such a tint as that of the bullfinch can be best
appreciated where, indeed, it is most commonly seen, amidst the verdure
of clustering leaves; for greens and reds, pleasing in themselves, ever
make the most agreeable contrasts among colours.
In its figure, too, this bird is very singular among the finches: his
curiously arched beak gives him the look of a diminutive hawk in a gay
plumage.
The bullfinch is greatly persecuted by gardeners on account of the
mischief he is supposed to do, for he has the habit of feeding on the
flower-buds of fruit-trees in winter and spring. On the other hand, he
is greatly esteemed as a cage-bird, and the bird-catchers are ever on
the watch for it. But the effect in both cases is pretty much the same,
since the hatred that slays and the love that makes captive are equally
disastrous to the species. There is no doubt that it is diminishing
in this country, and that it is now a rare bird in most districts.
Fortunately, it has a wide distribution in Great Britain: in Ireland,
where it is said to be rare, I have found it not uncommon, and tamer
than in England. It may be increasing there, which would not be strange
in a country where even the magpie is permitted to exist, and birds
generally are regarded with kindlier feelings than in this country.
The bullfinch does not often go to the ground to feed; he gets most
of his food on trees and bushes--insects, buds, fruit, and seeds of
various kinds. He inhabits woods, plantations, and thickets, and is
often seen in thick hedges and in the tangled vegetation growing by the
side of streams. Where he is not persecuted he is a tame and rather
sedentary bird, and will allow a person to approach within a dozen
yards before leaving his perch. His call and alarm note is a low,
piping, musical sound, very pleasant to hear. The male sings in the
spring, and so, it is said, does the female; but his strain is short,
and so feeble that it can be heard only at a distance of a few yards.
The nest is built during the last half of April in a holly or yew, or
other dense, dark bush or tree, or in a thick hedge. It is unlike the
nest of any other finch, being outwardly a platform-shaped structure
made of interwoven twigs, with a cup-shaped nest in the centre, formed
of fine rootlets, the rim of the cup projecting above the platform it
is built on. The eggs are four to six, greenish blue in ground-colour,
spotted and sometimes streaked with dark purplish brown, and blotched
with pinkish brown.
Bullfinches pair for life, and at all seasons of the year male and
female are seen together; if any young are reared, they usually remain
in company with the parent birds during the autumn and winter months.
* * * * *
Nearly allied to the common bullfinch are two beautiful birds which
have a place in our list of species. One of these is the rosy bullfinch
(_Carpodacus erythrinus_), of which two or three stragglers have
been found in England; it breeds in Finland, and is found throughout
the Russian Empire. The other is the pine grossbeak (_Pinicola_
(_enucleator_), also a rare straggler to Britain from the north of
Europe.
Crossbill.
Loxia curvirostra.
[Illustration: FIG. 50.--CROSSBILL. ¼ natural size.]
Wing and tail feathers brown; all other parts green, yellow, orange,
and tile-red, according to age and sex. Red is the colour of the adult
male in a state of nature, and yellow in captivity. Length, six inches
and a half.
* * * * *
The crossbills differ from all other birds in the extraordinary form of
the parrot-like bill. In other birds, whatever the shape of the bill
may be, straight or curved, or broad and flat, or conical, or hooked,
the two mandibles correspond, and fit when closed like box and lid. In
this bird both mandibles have prolonged curved points, and cross each
other, much as the two forefingers of our hands cross when the fingers
are loosely linked together. A full description of this form of beak
and its use as a seed-extractor, together with an admirably written
history of the common crossbill, is contained in the second volume of
Yarrell’s great work (fourth edition).
The crossbill is also remarkable on account of the changes of colour
it undergoes and of the brightness of its colours. These are birds of
the sombre pine-woods, inhabiting high latitudes; but in their various
greens and reds and yellows they are like tanagers and other tropical
families, and form an exception to the rule that birds of brilliant
plumage are restricted to regions of brilliant sunlight.
No fewer than four species of this genus (Loxia) figure in the list of
British birds; three of these may be dismissed in a few words:--
Parrot crossbill (_Loxia pittyopsittacus_) breeds in the pine-forests
of Scandinavia and northern Russia, and is known in England as a rare
straggler. It is scarcely distinct, specifically, from the common
crossbill.
White-winged crossbill (_Loxia leucoptera_), a North American species,
once obtained in England.
Two-barred crossbill (_Loxia bifasciata_) a Siberian species; a rare
straggler to England and Ireland.
The fourth species (the common crossbill) has a better title to
figure as a British species, and its winter visits to this country
are much more frequent, although irregular; and it also breeds with
us in some localities in Scotland, probably every year, and has also
bred intermittingly in many districts in England, even so far south
as Bournemouth. The reason of its irregularity in visiting our shores
is that the crossbill is one of those species that do not go farther
from home than they are compelled by severe cold and scarcity of food.
Driven from home they become ‘gipsy migrants,’ and may be very abundant
with us one year, and not one appear the following season, or for
several seasons. At all times of the year the crossbill is gregarious
in its habits. Throughout the summer it is seen in small parties; when
the breeding season is over these begin to move about, accompanied
by the young birds, and join with other parties, and as the season
progresses the flock grows by process of accretion until it may number
many hundreds. At this season they are remarkably tame, and will allow
a person to approach within a few yards and admire their colours and
various motions as they cling to and climb, parrot-like, about the
twigs in search of seed and fruit. When flying they call to each other
with a loud shrill note, and in late winter and spring both male and
female utter a low warbling song.
The nest is placed in a pine-tree, at a distance from the ground of
from five to forty feet; it is formed outwardly of twigs, roots, and
dry grass; the inner part, of wool, hair, and feathers. Four or five
eggs are laid, white or greenish white in ground-colour, spotted with
reddish brown, with under-markings of pale brown.
Corn-Bunting.
Emberiza miliaria.
Upper parts yellowish brown with dusky spots; under parts yellowish
white spotted and streaked with dusky. Length, seven and a half inches.
The present species is the largest of our five buntings, and is the
most generally diffused throughout the British Islands. It is often
called the common bunting, but is scarcely deserving of the name,
as in most places it is less common than the yellow bunting. It is
certainly more local than that bird, although in some localities, both
in the south and north of England, it is more numerous than any other
bird of its genus. Nor is its other name of corn-bunting more strictly
accurate, for though it is a frequenter of corn-fields in spring and
summer, it is equally partial to hay-meadows, commons, and other open
places. Like the skylark, it loves an open sky and a wide horizon;
but, not being able to soar, it seeks an elevation of some kind to
perch on--a hedge-top, or the summit of a bush, or a tall weed in the
middle of a field of corn, will serve it; but, best of all, it loves
a telegraph-wire, where it sits on high above the world, in sunshine
and wind, and without the slightest exertion is able to experience
agreeable sensations like those of the kestrel, lark, or tern, when
suspended motionless in mid-air. On a telegraph-wire it will sit
contentedly by the hour, delivering its song at regular intervals.