AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 185 



in the corn-fields and stackyards, to say nothing of 

 gardens, and have reluctantly come to the conclusion 

 that in our neighbourhood, at least, the Sparrow may 

 fairly be considered as simply detrimental. 



82. HAWFINCH. 



Coccothraustes vulgaris. 



Till the spring of the year 1870 we only knew the 

 Hawfinch in the neighbourhood of Lilford as an 

 occasional and by no means a common winter visitor. 

 On April 4th of the year just named I observed some 

 half a dozen or more of these birds haunting the old 

 thorn-bushes on our lawn ; they remained about for 

 some days, but, in spite of minute and protracted 

 search in the most likely localities, we could not 

 discover that they attempted to nest with us, and 

 they had all disappeared before the middle of April. 

 A pair or more, however, undoubtedly did breed not 

 far off, for in July and August I constantly observed 

 some of the species about our kitchen-garden. In 

 the very severe weather of December 1870 and 

 1871 we were visited by very large flocks of Haw- 

 finches ; and since the date last named some of these 

 birds have nested regularly about our pleasure- 

 grounds, and have become only too well known to 

 our gardeners and cottagers from their constant and 

 serious depredations amongst the green peas and 

 other vegetables. Several young Hawfinches taken 

 from the nest have been brought to me during the 

 last few years, and in 1880 a pair were brought to 

 Lilford alive from a nest not far from the house ; 

 this nest was built in a young oak tree close to a 



