194 SYNOPSIS AND ALPHABETICAL INDEX 
heavy. Made of : Heavy and lighter dried sticks as 
foundation, the bowl being about 2 inches thick, of 
mud, turf, horsehair, short grass, etc., strengthened 
inside with fresh strips of bark, and lined with feathers, 
wool, and soft materials. Second nests : Probably only 
one brood raised yearly. The same nests repaired are 
probably used for two or three years in succession. 
Eggs: Pale bluish-green, spotted and blotched olive- 
brown. Four to six. 
4. CHAFFINCH 
(Pages 167-172) 
Fringilla celebs. (Lat., Fringilla, finch, and celebs, 
bachelor, because the males separate from the females 
in migrating in autumn. Chaff, said to be from 
its love for chaff, or rather the grain found in 
it. (Compare chiffchaff, but which takes its name 
from its notes.) A common, pretty, neat and noisy | 
bird, often kept in cages because of its plumage and 
perhaps its song, but wild and not easily tamed. Plum- 
age: Of varied colours. Male: Crown of head greyish- 
blue, forehead black, breast chestnut red, wings black 
with two white marks across them, tail black, the middle 
feathers grey, the two outer black with a broad oblique 
white band. Beak: Becomes lead-blue at nesting 
time. Female: Head, back and shoulders brown, 
tinged olive, lower part greyish-white, and the white 
