CHAFFINCH. 41 



the best-finished nests probably being the work of old, 

 experienced birds. Not only so, but the Chaffinch is 

 careful to assimilate her nest to the colour of surrounding 

 objects, so that materials suitable for one situation would 

 be totally out of place in another. Moss, dry grass, 

 fine roots, cobwebs, lichens, and wool are the materials 

 principally used externally ; feathers, hair, vegetable 

 down, and wool are the usual lining. The external 

 structure is subject to the most variation. Some nests 

 are made externally almost entirely of green moss ; 

 others of green moss studded with different-coloured 

 scraps of lichen, paper, or even decayed wood, attached 

 firmly with spiders' webs ; others are nearly all 

 scraps of lichen. It will also be remarked that the 

 garniture of lichen is often more abundant on one side 

 than the other, and that the nest is shaped to the 

 fork or crotch that supports it. The materials are well 

 felted together. The nest is cup-shaped, the sides thick 

 and substantial, and the hollow containing the eggs 

 w^onderfully neat and round. The female is the builder, 

 but the male brings much of the material. A well- 

 finished nest of the Chaffinch takes nearly a fortnight 

 to build, and the parent birds are most solicitous for its 

 welfare, even though but a scrap or two of material has 

 been laid. A new nest is made for each successive 

 brood. The Chaffinch displays no gregarious nor social 

 tendencies during the breeding season, but sometimes 

 several nests may be found at no great distance from 

 each other. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Chafifinch are from four to six in number, 

 the latter, however, being exceptional. They are pale 

 bluish-green in ground colour, spotted and speckled, 

 and sometimes streaked, with rich purplish-brown, and 

 very often clouded or suffused with pale reddish-brown. 



