48 The Hawfinch 



uest itself is built of dead grasses aud bents, and the lining consists of rootlets 

 and hair: altogether it is so large that the Wood-Pigeon has been known to add 

 a few twigs to it, and thus adapt it to its own purposes.* The eggs number 

 from four to six, though five is the usual complement ; they are pale bluish or 

 bufl&sh-green in colour, and vary in pattern between that of the Common- aud 

 Reed- Buntings, the surface spots, blotches, aud streaks being deep pitch-brown, 

 with underlying spots of lilaciue-gre}' : in size and form they correspond pretty 

 closel}' with eggs of the Common Bunting. 



The flight of the Hawfinch is rapid and powerful, somewhat undulating when 

 the bird is passing from tree to tree, but more direct when long distances are 

 covered. On the wing it often utters a peculiar clicking sound, a kind of tic, 

 which may also sometimes be heard when the bird is caged. 



The food consists largely of seeds, those of the hornbean being much relished ; 

 but when feeding its young it devours insects, especially caterpillars, and probably 

 buds ; later in the 3'ear peas, cherr^'-kernels, beech-mast, yew-berries, and haws 

 are eaten. In confinement sunflower-seeds, hemp, oats, beech-nuts, canar}-, and 

 millet may be given. 



Personally I have had but little experience of the Hawfinch as a cage-bird. 

 On September i4tli, 1893, a birdcatcher brought me a specimen which had flown 

 into his nets : he was evidently afraid to handle it, and cautioned me against 

 attempting to touch it without gloves, saying that its bite was frightful and drew 

 blood ; however I soon had the bird in my hand and caged it ; but, although I 

 placed the cage on a high shelf, the Hawfinch never became tame, but so wore 

 the feathers of its wings and tail by its efi^orts to escape, that when after a few 

 weeks of captivity it died, the skin was not worth preserving. I am, therefore, 

 convinced that the Hawfinch should either be turned into a large aviary, or be 

 hand- reared. 



Speaking of a pair taken from the uest and brought to him in 1880, the late Lord 

 Lilford says : — " My two caged Hawfinches * * readily devoured meal-worms and 

 house-flies, but I imagine that this is an unnatural and acquired taste." In this 

 I think his Lordship was in error, for there can be nothing unnatural in a bird 

 largely reared upon partly digested caterpillars, subsequently eating mealworms. 

 Ripe apples would probably be a welcome addition to its prison-diet ; for, according 

 to Mr. Horatio Fillmer, of Brighton, the Black-tailed Hawfinch is especially 

 fond of fruit. 



As a pet the Hawfinch has but little to recommend it ; it is not a pretty 



* When I wrote my "Handbook of British Oolog>" I bad not fouml one finished nest of the Hawfinch; 

 one or two seen subsequeutlj- in Hertfordshire had already been deserted. 



