THE BIRD-LIFE OF LONDON 
near to, Kennington Park. Doubtless other observers 
can add very extensively to this list. 
The Chaffinch is entitled to be included in the special 
list of London’s commonest birds. Its cheery call-note 
and bright and spirited song give life and animation to 
many a suburban spot otherwise songless and almost 
void of bird-life. In suburban London there are many 
gardens, shrubberies, pleasure-grounds, and so forth that 
offer this sprightly bird a safe asylum, and here from 
February onwards to the summer the short, emphatic 
song of the Chaffinch may be heard, even in the busy 
streets near by, in the lulls of traffic noise. ‘The well- 
known call of pink-pink is often heard during autumn 
and winter in places where the bird never stays to nest, 
but its transient visits are none the less welcome for that. 
The food of this species is composed of small seeds, 
grain, and, in summer especially, insects and larve, the 
young being practically reared on the latter fare. In early 
spring the flocks that have been massed since the previous 
autumn break up into pairs, and the resumption of song 
by the male heralds the breeding season. At this time. 
too, the sharply uttered u-whit of the male is heard 
very frequently. The nests for the first broods are 
commenced in April, for later ones in June or July. 
For neatness and beauty the dainty, cup-like nest of the 
Chaffinch is almost without an equal. It is placed in 
some triangular fork of the branches of a fruit or other 
tree, or less frequently in a bush or hedgerow, sometimes 
supported on a thin branch close to the trunk of a big tree, 
to which it is also partially attached. ‘The outer materials 
of moss, dry grass, roots, lichens, and wool are all finely 
felted together with cobwebs, cocoons, and vegetable 
down, and finally lined with hair, feathers, wool, and 
down. ‘The outside is made to resemble the surroundings 
as closely as possible, so that nests vary a good deal in 
appearance. One was found in Hyde Park built to a 
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