156 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



which it takes up its quarters for the night. This 

 is more particularly the case in winter, when such 

 places are resorted to for warmth ; for during the 

 summer months, when the nights are warm, the 

 Greenfinch, like many other birds, is contented to 

 " camp out," and sometimes roosts upon the ground 

 with hardly any shelter beneath the canopy of 

 heaven. 



When crossing the South Downs after sunset 

 we have often disturbed Greenfinches and Linnets 

 from the scattered patches of heather with which 

 the slopes of these hills are irregularly clothed, and 

 we supposed from finding them there at so late an 

 hour that they had settled down for the night. 



In the winter, Greenfinches go about in flocks, 

 sometimes pretty large ones. Thompson speaks of 

 two hundred to three hundred being " not unfre- 

 quent," but we have never seen so many as this 

 assembled at one time, and indeed have more 

 frequently noticed them in smaller parties con- 

 sorting with Sparrows and Chaffinches about the 

 farmsteads. 



They are very fond of the seed of the corn 

 marigold (Chrysanthemum segetum), a common weed 



