CHAFFINCH. 333 



Chaffinch to resemble the words " wee, wee, wee, wee drunken 

 sowie,*" to which no doubt it bears some semblance. In the 

 lanes and gardens it is almost incessantly heard from the begin- 

 ning of May to the middle of June, or considerably earlier if 

 the weather be fine ; but its quality is by no means in harmony 

 with the beauty of the bird, which is such as to attract the 

 most unobservant as it hops familiarly along the road, or perches 

 on the boughs. 



The nest is of moderate size, very neatly constructed, having 

 its exterior composed of moss, lichens, grass, thread and rags, 

 its interior of wool, feathers, hair, and other suitable materials. 

 Not that all these articles enter into the composition of every 

 nest, for there is great diversity in this respect. When neatly 

 crusted with grey lichens, it is very difficult to distinguish it 

 in the cleft of a tree, which is the situation usually selected for 

 it. But it is found in a great variety of places, often on tall 

 trees, sometimes in the fork of a shrub, not unfrequently among 

 ivj on a wall, and still more commonly among the twigs of 

 a hawthorn hedge. Gardens, orchards, hedges, groves, copses, 

 and woods, are all inhabited by the Chaffinches at this season ; 

 but they are very rarely met with in the depth of large woods, 

 especially of those composed of fir. When a person approaches 

 the nest, the birds manifest much anxiety, flying about or hop- 

 ping among the twigs, and repeating their ordinary tweet in a 

 hurried manner. The female sits very close, and from her co- 

 lour and that of the nest is seldom perceived, but when aware 

 that she has been discovered, she slips off with alacrity, and 

 joins the male in evincing her anxiety as to the result of the 

 intrusion. The eggs, four or five in number, are of a regular 

 oval form, averaging about three fourths of an inch in length, 

 by six and a half twelfths in their greatest breadth, purplish 

 white, or pale reddish-grey, sparsely spotted with reddish-brown, 

 and having a few irregular lines of the same. 



Young. — The young when fledged resemble the female, but 

 have the tints paler, and are destitute of the bright green on 

 the rump. The first brood is usually abroad by the middle or 

 beginning of May ; the second by the end of July. The young 



