Abstract
ONE day recently I went to look at a chaffinch's nest which I had known of for some time. I had just begun to climb up the hawthorn-tree in which the nest was placed when I heard the pink, pink of an alarmed chaffinch, and immediately about five cock chaffinches and more than half a dozen hens and young ones appeared from what seemed to me nowhere. These chaffinches flew all round the tree in a most agitated manner, and one cock actually got on top of my head and pulled my hair vigorously, while a hen, which appeared with the other chaffinches, and I think was the mate of my assailant, flew on to the nest and pecked at me every time I tried to touch it. Their attack induced me to get down; and not until I was more than fifty paces from the tree did the other chaffinches go away.
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PERRYCOSTE, M. A Note on Chaffinches and Cuckoos . Nature 99, 345 (1917). https://doi.org/10.1038/099345d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/099345d0
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