HAWFINCH. 485 



roots and a little hair. The whole fabric is very loosely put 

 together, and it requires considerable care to remove it from 

 its situation uninjured." 



In a letter from Mr. Henry Doubleday, the situations of 

 five nests are thus noticed ; one was built in a whitethorn, 

 one on the head of a pollard hornbeam, a third twenty-five 

 feet from the ground on a spruce fir, the fourth on a tall red 

 cedar, the fifth in a holly. Joseph Gurney Barclay, Esq., 

 who lives at Leighton, on the London border of Epping 

 Forest, pointed out to me a nest of this bird in an apple tree 

 in his garden. This gentleman had also taken a nest from a 

 tall whitethorn on the forest, from which example the figure 

 forming the vignette to this account was drawn. The nest in 

 this instance was formed of twigs laid across the branches in 

 various directions as a frame-work or foundation of support ; 

 and the whole of the upper part was composed of gardener's 

 bass, Avreathed in circles, and mixed with a few fine roots. 

 A nest brought to me, containing three eggs and one young 

 bird, which was taken from a tall fir tree near Bexley, had a 

 flat under surface of dead twigs of fir and birch, nearly as 

 thick as a wheat straw, with fibrous roots and grey lichen 

 laid flat upon them, the structure resembling the platform 

 nests made by Doves and Pigeons. 



Mr. Doubleday says, " The eggs vary in number from 

 four to six, and are of a pale olive green, spotted with black, 

 and irregularly streaked with dusky grey. Some specimens 

 are far less marked than others, and I have seen some of a 

 uniform pale green ;"" the length eleven lines by eight lines 

 and a half in breadth. 



" The young are hatched about the third week in May, and 

 as soon as they are able to provide for themselves, they unite 

 with the old birds in flocks, varying in numbers from fifteen 

 or twenty to one hundred, or even to two hundred indivi- 

 duals. In this manner they remain through the winter, feed- 



