172 TEE ajTALLER BniTISH BIRDS. 



operations are commenced. The Cliaffinch is a skilful arcliitoct, and 

 constructs a nest of wonderful neatness and compactness. The materials 

 used for tho exterior are grasses, fibrous roots, and stalks of plants, 

 intermingled vvitk pieces of bark, spiders' webs, moss, and licliens; the 

 latter are fixed on the surface, and render it so similar in appearance 

 to the branch on which it is placed that only the experienced nest- 

 hunter is able to discover it. The lining consists of wool, feathers, 

 and the hair of the horse or cow. The last is obtained by the birds 

 from the cracks and crevices in fences or trees in the pasture fields, 

 against which the cattle are in the habit of rubbing themselves. 

 Besides tho branches of trees, the Chaffinch not uncommonly builds in 

 the ivy on walls, or among the twigs of the hawthorn and other 

 bushes. 



A correspondent of the "Field Naturalist's Magazine," relates that 

 a pair of those birds placed their nest in a shrub so close to his 

 drawing-room windows that ho was able to observe their operations. 

 The female alone worked at the structure, and was almost unceasingly 

 employed on it for nearly three weeks. "Think of this, bird-nesters," 

 says Mr. Morris, and we heartily echo his sentiments, "and leave the 

 artist the product of her toil; take gently out, if you will, an egg or 

 two for your collection, but leave her some to gladden her maternal 

 heart." The eggs are four or five in number, generally of a dull bluish 

 green colour, thinly spotted with reddish brown, and having a few 

 irregular lines of the same. The colour is, however, rather variable; 

 some have been found of a uniform dull blue, without any spots. 

 While the female sits the male perches close on the branches, and 

 cheers her with his song, and when she quits the nest in search of 

 food, takes her place. The young are hatched in about a fortnight, 

 and are fed by both parents exclusively on insects. Two broods are 

 usually reared in a season. 



The Chaffinch has a short but mellow and cheerful song, which is 

 sometimes heard as early as the end of February. Macgillivray says, 

 "the people of the south of Scotland most unpoetically imagine it to 

 resemble the words 'wee, wee, wee, wee drunken sowie,' to wliich no 

 doubt it bears some resemblance." In Belgium, where the song of 

 tho Chaffinch is highly esteemed, trained birds are brought together 

 by their owners to compete with each other. Heavy bets arc laid as 

 to the result, tho bird that 'trills' the oftenest in the course of an 

 hour being considered the victor. The ordinary call-note of this species 

 resembles tho syllables 'twlnh, twinh,' or 'pinli, pink;' hence two of 

 its populir names. 



The farmer too often looks upon the Chaffinch as a deadly enemy, 



