THE CHAFFINCH AND OTHER BIRDS.

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 240, 12 October 1942, Page 4

THE CHAFFINCH AND OTHER BIRDS.

[To The Editor.l Sir— The brief description given by "Interested" is that of a chaffinch. The male has a rieh brown breast verging on redness, and the same colour extends upwards to each side of the head. The top of the head is a slatey blue, which extends to the beak also. There are two bands of white on the wings— one lar.ger than the other — and also two white bands on the tail, more noticeable when the bird is flying. The female has the same gbneral mark'ings, but is not so highly coloured. The bird sings vigorously and has only one short song, repeated at intervals, and seldorn twice from the

same twig. It frequents home gardens and open landscape and frequently nest-s in apple trees. It is not a native. The title "rainbird" is applied generally to the petrel family, which calls at night before rain, and in particular the mottled petrel, which is about a foot long. This is a sea-bird. but at nesting time may be found well inland. Nests are in burrows. The bird is too shy to be found near a home garden and it could not alight on small twigs.

The North Island robin is seen only in the deep forest, where it is quite unafraid of that "arch-destroy-er man." In habit and appearance it is similar to the female White - breasted tit (the male of which has a black head) but is slightly larger. It is silent in flight and motionless on alighting. The South Island robin is probably twice the size of the N.I. one, frequents the deep forest, is silent in flight and motionless on alighting. I recollect that the wing tips droop as though the bird is poised ready for flight. It is very friendly and with patience may be tempted to snatch a tit-bit from the hand. It has quite a variable song quaintly sung, mostly at dav/n. The colouring is sopty grey merging to black, but the ^breast is mueh lighter— even yellow. Quite a few birds are more active in movement or song before rain. The notes of the chaffmeh -are not unlike those of a night songster (probably a petrel) whose song is more leisurely delivered, but my observations do not always support the predietion of rain. I hope this note will be a useful reply to your inauirei*.

"M."