176 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
nest, which is generally made of greyish moss and is 
comfortably lined with wool and hair, seems, on 
account of the neatness of its exterior, to have con- 
siderable attraction for artists, who often succeed in 
making very exact and pretty pictures of the nest, 
but are not always equally particular as to the eggs 
they put into it, for I have often seen the eggs of the 
Hedgesparrow or Redstart put into the nest of the 
Chaffinch—I suppose because they afford a brighter 
bit of colour. 
In plumage the male bird is bright and gay- 
coloured, and may well be spoken of as “as gay as a 
Chaffinch,” on this account, as well as on account of 
his lively manner and merry song. The beak is 
bluish red, with a tinge of purplish red on the under 
surface of the under mandible; irides hazel; on the 
forehead, immediately over the base of the upper 
mandible, is a black patch; the top of the head, nape 
and sides of the neck bluish grey ; back and scapu- 
lars reddish brown, or rather perhaps bay; rump 
and tail-coverts green, with a tinge of olive; lesser 
wing-coverts white, with a small spot of black on 
the base of each feather, which is scarcely seen; 
greater wing-coverts black, tipped with yellow and 
yellowish white; primary and secondary quills 
dusky, slightly edged with greenish yellow, and some 
of them are white at the base; tertials nearly 
black, margined with rusty and dull yellowish white ; 
tail dusky, except the two centre feathers, which are 
