72 FRINGILLTD^. 



depend is wool, into which green moss, Hchens of various 

 colours, and other suhstances are worked with wonderful 

 skill so as to produce a shapely mass of almost uniform 

 consistencjo Outwardly, the texture is more or less studded 

 with such lichens as may hest accord with the situation in 

 which it is placed, and films of the thin inner bark of certain 

 trees, especially the birch, are often interwoven ; these ex- 

 ternal additions, which artfully serve to protect the nest from 

 discovery, being further secured by spiders' webs, or the 

 webs alone may be thickly laced across and around the whole. 

 Inside, the wool is still more closely felted, and covered with 

 a smooth lining of hairs, while to complete this masterpiece 

 of upholstery a few soft feathers are deftly arranged, often 

 so as to curl over the interior and more effectually conceal 

 its contents. This exquisite fabric seems, on the evidence of 

 more than one observer, to be the work of the hen-bird only, 

 and numerous instances have been remarked wherein, unable 

 to procure all her proper materials, she has supplied the want 

 by using the best substitutes available — paper torn to tatters 

 being often one of them — but the beauty of the nest is nearly 

 always spoilt thereby. The place chosen for it is as varialde 

 as the substances of which it is composed, but the forked bough 

 of a bush or small tree iS a very favourite situation, and it is 

 seldom built lower than five or six feet or higher than twelve 

 or fifteen from the ground. The eggs are usually five in 

 number, measuring from '85 to "75 by from "59 to '55 in., a 

 dwarf being, however, not more than "63 by '48 in. They 

 are of a pale greenish-blue, generally suffused with reddish - 

 brown or purplish-buff, so that the prevalent tint is commonly 

 a warm one ; on this many markings of dark crimson are 

 deposited, some in the form of well-defined spots, but others 

 almost invariably with blurred edges that are insensibly lost 

 on the ground-colour. 



The Chaffinch is generally distributed over the British 

 Islands — those among the Outer Hebrides which are treeless, 

 Orkney and Shetland being perhaps the only places where it 

 does not yearly breed. Yet it visits even those barren wastes 

 occasionally, Mr. Elwes having seen one on a mountain in 



