HAWFINCH. 127 



that mouthy or in the first fortuight of May^ they may be 

 observed in little family parties^ feeding on seeds in general. 

 By the time the peas are well formed they enter onr gardens, 

 committing great havoc among them, and if undisturbed 

 they would continue to do so till after they are ripe, and 

 would finish them to the last pea. These birds are then very 

 wild and difficult to get a shot at. They are especially fond 

 of the seed of the maple. During the breeding season they 

 are remarkably silent, and had I not from time to time 

 picked up a stray feather or two of the bill-hook-shaped 

 primaries, 1 should have had no idea that there were any in 

 the neighbourhood. I have only myself met with two of the 

 nests in Sussex^ and both were in my own garden; they 

 were roughly constructed of a rather large mass of dead 

 twigs of the birch, lined with fine grass, wool, a little hair, 

 and a few feathers. One was placed on a very leafy bough 

 of an apple-tree, and the other in thick ivy, against the trunk 

 of an oak, each about ten feet from the ground. In winter, 

 a considerable flock may occasionally be met with. In 

 December 1889; I observed a female breaking up the green 

 seed-vessel of an Arbor vitce, close to a window of my own 

 house. They are remarkably fond of maize, which I have 

 often seen them take from the side of a pond where it was 

 thrown for some tame wildfowl, in my own grounds ; and I 

 have several times caught them, attracted by the same seed, 

 at a chicken-house, which has a large run enclosed by iron 

 wire, where, on my sudden appearance, they were too 

 frightened to find the apertures by which they had entered, 

 and, on one occasion, I was so severely bitten on the hand as 

 to draw blood. 



In January 1889, a female was seen close to the window at 

 Barrow Hill, Henfield, for some days, and was afterwards 

 joined by a male. They were observed feeding on the seeds 

 of a rose-tree, close to the house. This bird does not eat the 



