CHAFFINCH. 



463 



The Finclies generally are remarkable for the neatness and 

 beauty of the nests they construct, and the Chaffinch is no 

 exception to the rule. The outside of their nest is com- 

 posed of moss, studded with white or green lichens, as may 

 best accord with the situation in which it is built ; the inside 

 is lined w'ith wool, and this again covered with hair and 

 some feathers ; the eggs are usually four or five in num- 

 ber, of a pale purplish buff, sparingly streaked and spotted 

 with dark reddish brown. The place chosen is variable, 

 sometimes it is fixed in the fork of a bush in a hedgerow, on 

 a branch of a wall-fruit tree, frequently in an apple or pear 

 tree several feet above the ground. A correspondent in the 

 Field Naturalists"' Magazine, relates that a pair of Chaf- 

 finches built in a shrub so near his sitting-room window as to 

 alloAv him to be a close observer of their operations. The 

 foundation of their nest was laid on the 12th of April ; the 

 female only worked at the nest-making, and by unwearied 

 diligence, the beautiful structure was finished in three weeks : 

 the first egg was deposited on the 2nd of May ; four others 

 were subsequently added, and the whole five were hatched 

 on the 15th. During the time of incubation, neither cu- 

 riosity nor constant observation from the opened window 

 disturbed the parent bird ; she sat most patiently ; the male 

 bird often visited his partner, but it was not discovered 

 whether he ever brought her food. 



The Chaffinch is too generally distributed over all the 

 British Islands to require extended notice of localities ; it 

 inhabits Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and other northern 

 parts of the European Continent, extending southwards to 

 the shores of the Mediterranean, being migratory in the 

 colder countries, and stationary in those which are warmer. 

 It is a common bird in the Levant and in Northern Africa. 

 I have little doubt that it is also found in the Canary Islands 

 and Madeira, as it has been seen by Mr. Charles Darwin, 



