HAWFINCH. 75 
winter months, and was of opinion that the majority 
of the birds went elsewhere at that season! Our 
experience agrees with his, in regard to North and 
Mid Cheshire, where in most winters the bird, if not 
entirely absent, is seldom met with. 
In districts in the north of the county, where large 
quantities of garden produce are grown for the Man- 
chester market, the Greenfinch is looked upon with 
disfavour. It holds its own, however, in spite of per- 
secution, and no nest is commoner than this bird’s in 
the evergreens and hedgerows. In Dunham Park and 
other places where it is not molested, the Greenfinch 
is sociable in the breeding season, and many nests are 
frequently built in a restricted area. 
HAWFINCH. 
CoccoTHRAUSTES VULGARIS, Pallas. 
Twenty years ago the Hawfinch was a rare bird in 
Cheshire, but it is now a fairly common resident 
throughout the Plain. Brockholes does not include 
the bird in his list; at the present time, however, it 
nests annually in Wirral, and is steadily increasing in 
numbers in that district. We have no records from 
the Hill Country, although, if the bird continues to 
extend its breeding area, it will probably be met with 
ere long in the wooded valleys. 
Since 1860, when the Hawfinch was first recorded 
as a Cheshire bird,? it has been frequently reported 
from various localities, and is now plentiful in some 
districts where a few years ago it was unknown. Owing 
to its shyness, the bird is seldom seen, except in summer, 
1 Brockholes, op. cit. p. 8. * J. J. Jones, Field, vol. xv. p. 199. 
