2 CHAFFINCH. 



at hand. The upper edge of the nest is generally very neatly woven 

 with slender straws, and the width of the open part is often not 

 more than an inch and a half, but usually an inch and three quarters; 

 the whole is firmly fixed between the branches; to which some of its 

 component parts are attached for the purpose. 



In the neighbourhood of Belfast, where there are ( branches * of 

 the cotton manufacture, these birds use that material in the construction 

 of their nests; and in answer to the objection that its conspicuous 

 colour would betray the presence of the nest, and not accord with the 

 theory that birds assimilate the outward appearance of their structures 

 to surrounding objects, it was replied, says Mr. Thompson, that, on 

 the contrary, the use of cotton in that locality might rather be 

 considered as rendering the nest more difficult of detection, as the 

 roadside hedges and neighbouring trees are always dotted with tufts 

 of it. 



The eggs are four or five in number, of a short oval form, and 

 of a dull bluish green colour, clouded with dull red, often blended 

 together into one tint. They are slightly streaked, and somewhat spotted 

 irregularly over their whole surface with dark dull well-defined red 

 spots. Some have been found of a uniform dull blue, without any spots. 



N. Howe, Esq., of Worcester College, Oxford, tells me of two he 

 had which were quite round, the ground colour very pale blue, with 

 three or four round black spots scattered over the surface. 



W. Bridger, Esq., has obligingly forwarded the nest, and the Eev. 

 R. P. Alington a drawing of the nest, which, though neither of them 

 have had to be made use of, I am equally obliged for. 



