PERCHING BIRDS. 101 
quite flat, but the lining of hair in it was nearly an inch 
in thickness. 
The Cirl Bunting (£. cirlus). This species, like 
nivalis, is not common, but they are occasionally taken 
on the forest fields at Edwinstowe during the winter, 
appearing with us as mere stragglers. 
Amongst our native birds hardly one, I think, equals 
the Chaffinch (Fringilla celebs) in the exquisite con- 
struction and finish of its nest ; and not one spends so 
long a time in its formation ; I have known three weeks 
consumed in this process. It might well be thus when 
the elaborate style of the workmanship is considered, 
for indeed it is a very model of neatness; no straggling 
straws or other materials disfigure the symmetrical 
outline, but both the interior and exterior are per- 
fectly compact and smooth. I have sometimes been led 
to believe that, in addition to the weaving and felting, 
by which the wool and moss and other materials are 
wrought together, the chaffinch uses its saliva for the 
purpose of increasing the firmness of its work. I have 
seen some of their nests which certainly appeared on 
removal, to have been attached to the branches of trees 
by other means than the mere weaving of the materials 
around them. 
I was first impressed with this idea by finding a nest 
on the top of a post in my own garden. The post 
formed part of an open feuce, on either side of which 
currant trees were placed ; it was of split oak, and the 
top having been sawn off the surface was perfectly 
smooth, and nearly, though not quite, level. On this 
platform of six inches by four, without a splinter or pro- 
jection of any kind to afford an attachment, 1 found in 
