240 CONIROSTRES. 



stones and almonds for tlie kernels ; tliey likewise 

 feed upon liaws and other winter berries.* 



Tlie type of this sub-family, — 



The Hawfinch {Coccotkraustes vnlgaris), from its 

 general conformation, is evidently ada].)ted to some labo- 

 rious occupation. Its short tail and wings unfit it for 

 long aerial voyages, and its thick neck and ponderous 

 hill denote great muscular power. Hawfinches may be 

 seen in winter diligently picking up and cracking the 

 stones of laurel cherries, from which Blackbirds had, a 

 few months before, stripped the pulp. They are not un- 

 common in clierry orchards, where their visits may be 

 detected by the ground being covered with halves of 

 cherry-stones, which these birds sjolit with their powerful 

 beaks, as cleverly as a workman could divide them with 

 his chisel ; they likewise feed on hazel nuts, the kernels 

 of the fruit of the hawthorn, seeds of various kinds, and, 

 when they can get them, green peas. 



The nest is built sometimes in a bush, and sometimes 

 among the branches of a tree : it is composed of twigs, 

 intermixed with a larger or smaller quantity of fragments 

 of grey lichen. The latter is never wanting, and some- 

 times constitutes the greater part of the nest. The mate- 

 rials are loosely put together, and the cavity is lined with 

 fine roots and hair ; the eggs are from four to six in 

 number, of a pale olive colour, spotted with brown and 

 streaked with grey. 



* Hence the Hawfinch is called by the Germans, Kernbeisser, 

 Kia'sch Kernbeisser, Kerschfink, Nussbeisser, &c. 



