36 THE BIRDS OF BERKS AND BUCKS. 



latter end of 1864, in the park at Windsor, and 

 was preserved by Mr. Hasell, of Bexley Street. 

 Mr. R. B. Sharpe writes me word that this bird is 

 met with near Cookham in October, sometimes 

 plentifully. A few breed in that neighbourhood 

 every spring, and Mr. Sharpe has seen several 

 young birds which were shot at Formosa. 



The Hawfinch is often seen in Stoke and Langley 

 Parks, occasionally in the woods near Newbury and 

 High Wycombe. Yarrell says that it had been 

 known in his time to breed in the neighbourhood of 

 Windsor ; and Mr. Wolley told me that it used to be 

 numerous near Eton when he was a boy. It has 

 a partiality for nesting in whitethorns. Its food 

 consists of the common pea, the seeds of the horn- 

 beam, hawthorn, yew, and other trees, and its strong 

 bill is admirably adapted for breaking the hard shell 

 vv^hich many of these possess. Mr. Morris was in- 

 formed that Hawfinches are common in Stowe Park. 

 It is a common resident at Bradfield, near Reading ; 

 and Mr. Frank Collins states that he has met with 

 this bird at Betterton, near Wantage, where one 

 was caught in a gooseberry-net in the autumn of 

 1867. It occurs also at Cliefden, and Woburn. 



Goldfinch {CarducHs dcgans). Generally dis- 

 tributed throughout the two counties, where it re- 

 mains all the year. This pretty bird has greatly de- 

 creased in numbers during the last ten years, partly 

 from the rapacity of bird-catchers, and in a great 



