COUNTRY LIFE
IT is averred by the more statistical naturalists that the commonest birds in England—not excepting even sparrow and stare—are the chaffinch and blackbird. Is their eminence due in part to their courage? Much the bravest birds in my garden are these two. A cock chaffinch flies up to me directly I appear on the lawn and pinks at me till food is produced. The blackbirds are very tame and also very hostile. They will attack even a cat at close quarters. Both live, I fancy, rather a long time. A particular semi-albino blackbird—and albinos are perhaps commoner than in any other species—inhabited one Hampshire garden for a great many years, and my particular cock chaffinch is quite an old friend ; but it is difficult to be sure of the age of birds, and they live longer in captivity than in the wild. I knew, for example, of a sixteen-year-old captive lark. Generally speaking, the smallest birds have the shortest life. The blackbird has a stronger hold on life than the thrush, probably because he has a more catholic taste in food.
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