26 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Family FRIXGILLID.E. Gunus Coccotiiraustes. 



Sub-family FRINGILLIN/E. 



HAWFINCH. 



COCCOTHRAUSTES VULGARIS, Fallas. 



Single Brooded. Laying season, May. 



British breeding area : Owing to the excessive 

 shyness and skulking habits of the Hawfinch, it is 

 somewhat difficult to define its exact distribution during 

 the breeding season. It is decidedly an English bird, not 

 breeding in any other portion of the United Kingdom, 

 although some writers state that it does so in Ireland. 

 Some authorities assert that the Hawfinch has steadily 

 increased in numbers during the past half-century, but I 

 am inclined to attribute this apparent fact to the closer 

 scrutiny and greater number of observers. The Haw- 

 finch breeds locally, and more or less frequently in almost 

 every county of England ; most abundant in the home 

 counties, and least so in the extreme north and west. 



Breeding habits : For a month or more before the 

 nest is commenced, the parties of Hawfinches that ha\'e 

 been leading a more or less nomadic life during the 

 winter separate into pairs and betake themselves to the 

 accustomed nesting-places. Orchards, small woods, fir 

 plantations, and, less frequently, shrubberies are the 

 favourite breeding-grounds of the Hawfinch ; but gardens, 

 tall hedges in well-timbered fields, and ivy-clad trees in 

 lanes are also selected. As the breeding season ap- 

 proaches, the birds become even more shy and seclusive 

 in their habits, and the peculiar and characteristic song 

 of the males is almost the only sign of their presence. 

 The nest is usually commenced tov\^ards the end of 

 April. A site is selected in the branches of an old 

 lichen-draped fruit tree, or hawthorn, in the pollard top 

 of a hornbeam, amongst ivy, or in the dense branches 



