58 BRITISH BIRDS. 
There are several plantations, or small woods, within a mile or two of 
the outskirts of Sheffield where the Hawfinch may be seen at all times of 
the year. One, in particular, is principally composed of beech. _ Every 
now and then you may hear a sharp click repeated several times, and you 
may catch sight of a small flock of half a dozen birds flying in a straggling 
mariner through the topmost branches of the trees. You may recognize 
- them at once by their short tails and Hawk- or Cuckoo-like heads, causing 
them to appear to have scarcely any neck. They are very wild and shy, and 
this, together with their rapid and powerful flight, makes them difficult to 
shoot; but occasionally you may see them on the ground busily engaged in 
feeding upon the fallen mast under the beeches. Besides the sharp click 
which appears to be generally uttered on the wing, and of which the letters 
bpt serve to remind me, they have a feeble song in spring. A gentleman who 
lives not far from this plantation tells me that before the nesting-season 
he often hears the notes of these birds, which are by no means unmusical, 
and are unlike those of any other bird—four simple whistles in an ascend- 
ing scale, the first two at a slight interval and the last two repeated rapidly 
one after the other, the final one being somewhat drawn out. The old 
birds bring the young in their first spotted plumage to his garden to feed 
upon the peas; and he tells me that they also make havoc amongst his 
cherries ; but unlike the Blackbirds, who eat the fruit and reject the stone, 
the Hawfinches eat the stone and reject the fruit. 
As is usual with most showy birds, the Hawfinch is excessively shy, 
and only frequents those localities that are well timbered and afford 
it plenty of shelter. Its chief haunts are in woods, fields in which there are 
occasional clumps of trees, old orchards, and dense shrubberies, where the 
evergreens make it a secluded retreat. Even in the suburbs of London the 
Hawfinch is far from being a scarce bird, if a local one; and, according to 
Mr. Harting, it has nested, amongst other places, im the Horticultural 
Gardens at Chiswick, in the neighbourhood of Harrow, at Muswell Hill, 
and Hampstead. A bird that is so shy and retirmg as the Hawfinch, 
leaves but little to be said of its habits; and the observer usually only gains 
a transient glimpse of it as it hastens away into the deepest parts of the 
cover. Like most of the British Finches, the Hawfinch congregates into 
flocks in winter, sometimes of only half a dozen individuals, probably the 
young of the previous season and their parents, but occasionally in very 
large numbers. The Hawfinch seems to have a great liking for yew trees, 
probably because they are so gloomy and dense, and partly because the 
luscious berries are very palatable to it. The birds also frequent these trees 
in winter to roost, approaching them in a very hurried manner, and in- 
stantly disappearing amongst the foliage. 
Dixon, when in Algeria, made the following notes on this bird :—“‘ We 
only found the Hawfinch in the evergreen-oak forests on the hills above 
