420 THE GROSBEAK OR HAWFINCH. 



The Grosbeak or Hawfinch. 



(Loxia Coccothraustes.) Linn. 



" The flowers sprang wanton to be prest, 

 The birds sang love on every spray, 

 Till too, too soon the glowing west 



Proclaim 'd the speed of winy M> day." — Burns. 



This bird is rare in Britain, although it sometimes breeds in 

 Epping and Windsor forests. It lives chiefly on haws (hence 

 hawfinch), the stones of which it breaks with ease. Mr Jesse 

 says — " It breeds amongst the hornbeam pollards in Epping 

 Forest, where the bird may be seen all year ;" and Mr Doubleday 

 also says — "They are permanent and very abundant in Epping 

 Forest, but extremely shy. Their chief food the seeds of the 

 hornbeam — the prevailing tree in the forest ; they also feed on 

 the kernels of haws, plum and cherry stones, laurel berries, &c, 

 and in summer make havoc amongst green peas." They breed 

 in April ; nest loosely constructed of twigs, intermixed with 

 lichens, lined with fine roots ; eggs, five or six — pale olive green, 

 spotted and streaked with black, some streaked with brown; 

 nest generally in a scrubby thorn, or the heads of hornbeams, 

 often on the branches of large trees, sometimes in hollies. The 

 bird is an inch larger than the greenfinch — 7 J long by 11 J. It 

 looks like a dwarf, on which the head and bill of a bird twice 

 its size had been stuck. The bill, pinkish in winter, is blue in 

 summer. It has a low song, like a bullfinch. Though not 

 elegant, it is rather beautiful. Crown of the head, cheeks, 

 rump, and tail-coverts pale chestnut, with a bar of white across 

 each wing ; secondary and part of the primary quills black, with 

 a purple tinge, five so singularly cut at the points as to 

 distinguish it from all other birds. It is often called the black- 

 throated grosbeak, from the throat and space between the bill 

 and eyes being black. Breast and belly, pale purplish-red ; legs, 

 brown ; iris, grey. This is another bird which, in their summer 

 rambles, my young readers might be on the look-out, for if so 

 plentiful in the south of Britain, I see no reason why it should 

 not be found in the north, as the island is not so large. I mind 

 about fifty years ago the missel thrush was considered only a 

 winter visitant here, where now it breeds broadcast in summer, 



