HAWFINCH. 91 



found in Southern Europe (Yarrell^ vol. ii. p. 102), whence we 

 should not exj)ect the arrival of migrants in winter. 



The Hawfinch feeds largely on the fruit of the hawthorn 

 and cherry, and other stone fruits, but, unlike most fruit-eating 

 birds, it rejects the pulp and confines its attention to the stone, 

 which, with its wonderfully powerfvil beak, it splits with great 

 ease, and devours the kernel. Of this remarkable fact there 

 is abundant proof. Having on one occasion disturbed a Haw- 

 finch from a hawthorn bush near Clattercote, in February 

 1884, I searched the ground underneath the tree, and found 

 numbers of haws bitten open ; none of the pulp was eaten, but 

 the stones w^ere split and the kernels extracted. I have also, 

 on the few occasions on which I have had an opportunity of 

 examining the contents of these birds^ crops, always found 

 kernels of some kind in them. The keeper at Broughton, 

 mentioned previously, who is a very observant man, told me 

 he had seen the Hawfinches pick up damson stones under the 

 trees, and turning them round in their beaks until they got 

 them edgeways, split them with great ease. To any one 

 who has ever tried to crack a haw-stone it is indeed surprising 

 that this comparatively small bird should have sufiicient 

 strength in its beak to split them {vide Zoologist, 1888, p. 148). 

 Hawfinches will also eat various seeds. In severe weather, in 

 the early part of 1879, a female bird came to feed on a patch 

 of ground kept clear of snow, where I dail}^ fed many birds, 

 and was seen by my brother to attack and drive away a 

 Blackbird from a meaty bone, upon which she subsequently 

 fed; a male bird joined her another day, remaining for some 

 time, and a week or two later we enjoyed the rare treat of 

 a lengthened observation of this shy and wary species pecking 

 about on the lawn beneath a holly tree, doubtless in search of 

 fallen berries and stones. 



From its great shyness the Hawfinch easily escapes obser- 

 vation, and it is not unlikely that some numbers breed with 

 us annually. The deep glades of Wychwood Forest about 



