This bird is highly esteemed in Germany for its musical powers, and extravagant prices are given for first-class performers. As an instance may be cited the fact that a workman at Ruhla, in Thuringia, in the excess of his admiration for a good bird, gave a cow in exchange for it, hence the proverb current in the Harz: This chaffinch is worth a cow.
if a chaffinch perches on a windowsill, beware of treachery. Hearing its song heralds rain.
Charles, Swainson. The folk lore and provincial names of British birds. London, Pub. for the Folk-lore Society by E. Stock, 1886.