hen-chaffinches

Updated: July 14, 2025

He did it against time, before dark, for if night came and caught him with an empty crop, he froze. Perhaps he would freeze, anyway; but no matter. The hen-chaffinches, presumably at the end of a journey, or part way along it, too, were in a like hurry, and for the same reason.

F. St. Mars - The Way of the Wild

He had come at even to a garden given over to hen-chaffinches no cocks, as we said but at dawn, or, rather, his later hour for rising, he found the garden given over to song-thrushes, all pale beside him, all slim, all snaky of build Continental song-thrushes, most like, and the same only come to those parts in very hard weather, for they come a long way.

F. St. Mars - The Way of the Wild