ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--The first of these is undoubtedly the song of the bird; but our amateurs are not less attentive to the different notes that express its passions and wants. The note of tenderness, and which is also thought to indicate a change of weather, is _trif, trif_: its call, or the rallying note it makes use of on its passage, and which so often draws it within the snares of our bird-catchers, is _ïak, ïak_, repeated several times; the cry _fink, fink_, which it often repeats, and from which its German name is derived, appears, if we may so call it, to be mechanical and involuntary. But what makes it appear to still more advantage among other birds are its clear and trilling tones, that seem almost to approach to words; in fact, its warbling is less a song than a kind of _battement_, to make use of a French word, and is expressed in German by the word _schlag_ (trill), which is used to designate its song as well as the nightingale's. Some chaffinches have two, three, four, and even five different _battemens_, each consisting of several strains, and lasting several minutes. This bird is so great a favourite in Germany, that not a single tone of its voice has escaped the experienced ears of our bird-fanciers. They have observed its nicest shades, and are continually endeavouring to improve and perfect it. I confess I am myself one of its warmest admirers; I have constantly around me the best songsters of its species, and if I liked I could write a good sized volume on all the details of its music, but I will confine myself to that which bears most on this subject.
The song of the chaffinch bearing an evident relation to articulate sounds, its has been thought to distinguish its different variations by the final syllable of the last strain. The most admired in Thuringia are the following, which I shall give in their order, and in their different degrees of superiority.[38]
1. _The Double Trill of the Hartz_ in Lower Saxony is composed of six strains, rather long, the last of which is ended by dwelling on the two final syllables, which I shall express here by the word "_weingeh_[39]." I doubt if ever a bird in its wild state has executed this so perfectly as I heard it at Ruhl[40] and at my own house. Art has certainly created it. It is with difficulty that a chaffinch attains it, if, with the best abilities, it has not been instructed from its earliest youth. Rarely can it give it complete without leaving any part out. On this account a high price must be given for the little prodigy that sings it through, full, entire, and in all its strength.