  “Pink, pink!” Who among us does not know the Chaffinch with his bright “pink, pink,” and perky walk, as he goes down the garden path in front of us, or flies into the nearest shelter showing off the white bars on his wings as he does so. No matter how severe the winter or how hot the summer, he is always with us, a constant visitor to our gardens, and when we go into the woods and fields we shall still find him equally at home. Early in February he begins his song, which consists merely of a short run down the scale ending up in the syllables “de-wi.” Pairing takes place early in the season, but some weeks elapse before he thinks of nesting, well knowing that the insects so necessary for his young are not yet born. At the end of April his mate will begin to build the nest, while her lord and master sits quietly by, encouraging her with his song but not deigning to soil his beak or feet with honest toil. The site chosen is very variable; the fork of some giant tree or against the trunk of a hedgerow elm supported by a lateral shoot are the places most frequently used, but it is often situated in a hedge, and sometimes in the ivy against a wall. The nest itself is a beautiful mass of moss, grass, and wool carefully felted together with cobwebs and thickly lined with hair, lichens being often added on the outside to make it assimilate better with the surroundings. The eggs, generally four in number, are greenish blue, spotted and clouded with deep reddish brown, but occasionally the markings are entirely absent. CHAFFINCH During incubation the male waits on his hen with great care, bringing her all the titbits and delicacies in the way of insects which he can find, and both sexes are assiduous in their attentions to their young. After the duties of housekeeping are over, the rest of the year is spent in the woods, hedgerows, and gardens, feeding promiscuously on insects, seeds, and berries. Towards the middle of October large flocks, in which sometimes one sex largely predominates, reach our shores from more northerly breeding haunts; most of these, moving southwards, feed largely on beech-mast in company with Bramblings and then pass on, but many remain to keep us company during the winter, till early in spring they return again to their breeding quarters. The male has the crown and nape bluish grey; back reddish brown; rump greenish; upper wing coverts white; greater wing coverts black tipped with white and forming two conspicuous bars. Wing and tail feathers black, the former edged with yellowish white, and the two outermost pairs of the latter spotted with white; cheeks and under parts reddish brown. Bill horn coloured in winter, deep lead grey in summer. Legs dark brown. The female is of various shades of yellowish brown, but the white wing bars are conspicuous. The young at first resemble the female. Length 6 in.; wing 3·4 in. |
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