GEEENFINCH 163 



Clogg mentions a Yellow-Hammer's nest found on 

 August 26. I found a Greenfinch's nest, with young 

 ones, in a blackthorn, about that date, certainly in the 

 last week in Angast." 



Dr. A. G. Butler, in his observations on the variation 

 of common bird's nests in Kent, says : " Excepting in 

 strength and size, I have observed little variation in the 

 nests of the Greenfinch, the principal difference con- 

 sisting, so far as I have seen, in the presence or absence 

 of wool, the substitution of fine fibre or hair in the hning, 

 and the partial substitution of bleached grasses for twigs 

 and coarse roots in the external structure. The eggs, 

 however, vary much more, a clutch of five in one of 

 my nests being zoned with dull blood-red or dark russet 

 mottling, upon which are a few short darker red-brown 

 linear markings." 



The eggs of the Greenfinch are most variable both in 

 colouring and in shape, some being almost perfectly 

 round, while others are oblong and appear deformed. 



On September 16, 1887, Dr. A. G. Butler " took a nest 

 of three young Greenfinches, apparently about five days 

 old, out of a plum tree in an orchard near Sittingbourne, 

 in Kent." Mr. T. Hepburn found the Greenfinch nesting 

 in numbers on May 10 and 14, 1900, in the holly and 

 furze bushes on the beach at Dungeness. 



Throughout the district of Orlestone, Mr. E. T. Filmer 

 says the Greenfinch is common, and it is included among 

 the birds of Bethersden by Captain J. D. Cameron. 



The Song of the Greenfinch. — " I have stated, in The 

 Evolution of Bird Song (p. 126), that the ' tewy ' alarm 

 (a slurred whistle) is never uttered in the song of the 

 Greenfinch. I regret to say that this statement was 

 inserted in the correction of the proof, and was made 



