76 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 
Buckfinch, Horsefinch, Copperfinch, Whitefinch, Beechfinch, Wet- 
bird.—One of our most beautiful birds is the male of this species— 
one of quite the most beautiful of our English nests is its nest. 
It would be a shame if he, with his gay dress and handsome 
_appearance, were the bachelor he is called in his Latin name. It 
is, however, only at one period of the year that the sexes in the 
Chaffinch tribe (as in many other kinds of birds) separate. The 
song of the Chaffinch, though not of great compass or variety, is 
very cheery and sweet, and very different from his melancholy 
sound of “‘ Weet, weet,” which many country people take as a 
prognostication of rain ;—whence his local name of Wet-bird. The 
nest, always in a tree-fork or bush or hedge, always firmly and 
securely built in, always contrived and fashioned with a wonderful 
compactness, neatness and beauty, is formed of mosses, with 
various-shaded lichens on the surface, and lined with wool and 
hair and feathers, the last two being the finishing substances. I 
never knew more than five eggs to be laid, oftener four, of a 
peculiar winy-red dun, spotted and streaked—and most near the 
large end—with a rich, dark Sienna brown. The eggs in their 
comeliness befit the nest, and the nest is worthy of the bird. The 
female is, however, the principal, if not the sole, architect and 
builder.—Fig. 5, plate IV. 
98. MOUNTAIN FINCH—(Fringilla montifringilia). 
Brambling, Mountain Finch, Bramble Finch, Lulean Finch.— 
Only a winter visitor to our shores, but still pretty generally 
diffused throughout the kingdom at that season, though never 
perhaps, strictly speaking, any thing like a common bird any 
where. 
99. TREE SPARROW—(Passer montauus). 
Mountain Sparrow.—This species has undoubtedly been long 
