1556 THE PERCHING BIRDS 



the most artistic structure. It was placed upon a birch tree, and neatly ornamented 

 with pieces of yellow and gray lichens and small bits of birch bark, so as to 

 resemble a portion of the tree itself, and was finally most carefully lined with soft 

 moss and bits of down and wool, through which some fine roots showed every here 

 and there. A remarkable nest found in Denmark was decorated all over the 

 outside with small pieces of newspaper. The eggs of the chaffinch are generally 

 purplish gray in ground color, washed with green, and blotched and spotted with 

 dark red; but we have seen perfectly blue, unspotted eggs, although this variety 

 is rare. The chaffinch feeds during the spring and summer months principally 

 upon insects, and we have watched a male chaffinch gathering aphides from off the 

 under surface of the leaves of some beeches, clinging head downward like a tomtit. 

 A trait noticed in a village on the Rhine was that the chaffinches to a large extent 

 deserted the shelter of the trees when singing, preferring at such times to occupy 

 a more conspicuous position upon some cottage roof, or the gable of a barn. The 

 chaffinch is to a large extent a bird of passage, moving from one part of the 

 country to another, according to the supply of food and the condition of the weather. 

 In the breeding season isolated pairs of chaffinches may be found nesting in locali- 

 ties little adapted by natural circumstances to afford them a home, as, for example, 

 when a pair of these birds elect to take up their summer quarters beside some north- 

 ern farm where they have to perch upon the stone walls in default of timber; but 

 the chaffinch is a bird of resource, and if hard pressed will even nest upon the 

 ground. The young birds frequently associate together as early as the middle of 

 July, the sexes then being hardly distinguishable. The chaffinch is a fairly early 

 nester; and we have known the young to fly as early as the nineteenth of May even 

 in the West Highlands, although they do not usually hatch before the last days 

 of that month. On the Continent we have found the chaffinch plentiful on moun- 

 tain ranges of moderate elevation, as in Central France and the Black Forest. In 

 Switzerland it is a common bird about the summer chalets, descending into the 

 plains before severe weather sets in. The chaffinch is subject to considerable vari- 

 ation of plumage, and some few years ago we saw an entirely yellow specimen, 

 which was identified by the discovery of a tiny patch of pink feathers on the breast. 

 We have also seen others of a uniform bright yellow, and others again of a very 

 light cinnamon. The male in summer has the mantle, back, and scapulars, chest- 

 nut brown; the wing coverts white, or black tipped with white; the quills black 

 margined with pale olive yellow; the inner primaries white at the base, forming a 

 speculum; the secondaries white at the base, forming a band with white tips to the 

 gray coverts; forehead black, the crown slaty blue, the chin and breast pale vinous 

 red, and the lower parts vinous white. The female is ashy brown above washed 

 with olive yellow, the wings being conspicuously pied with white, and the lower 

 parts are ashy brown. 



This chaffinch (F. teydea) is peculiar to Teneriffe, inhabiting the 



Chaffinch ^ rear y heights of the Peak and surrounding plateaus. It frequents 



the pine forests, feeding on the seeds of the pines, and breaking the 



cone with its powerful beak in order to get at its contents. The note of this bird is 



plaintive and often repeated, and bears some resemblance to that of the serin finch. 



