268 HAWFINCH. 



only at uncertain and unequal intervals ; it has, 

 however, been lately ascertained to breed in 

 some parts of the south, but seems extremely 

 local, while in other parts it appears occasionally, 

 and generally in the winter and spring. For the 

 notice of the permanent residence and nidification 

 of this bird in England, we are indebted to Henry 

 Doubleday, Esq. who communicated his observa- 

 tions made in the vicinity of Epping Forest, to the 

 Magazine of Zoology and Botany.* This gentle- 

 man has most obligingly furnished our own col- 

 lection with specimens of the birds, with the nest 

 and eggs procured in the same neighbourhood, 

 and we must now resort to this source for infor- 

 mation, having never had the satisfaction of seeing 

 the bird alive, or in its natural localities. Mr 

 Doubleday considers that their extreme shyness 

 has hitherto kept us in ignorance of their habits. 

 Their principal food in Epping Forest is the 

 seeds of the hornbeam, (carpinus betulus^) also 

 the kernels of haws, plumb stones, laurel berries, 

 &c. and in summer green peas, from the gardens 

 in the vicinity of the forest. The situation of 

 the nest is various, but it is most commonly 

 placed in an old scrubby white thorn bush, 

 often in a very exposed situation. They also 

 frequently build on the horizontal arms of large 

 oaks, the heads of pollard hornbeams, in hollies, 

 and occasionally on fir trees in plantations, the 

 elevation of the nest varying from five to twenty- 

 five, or thirty feet. It is composed of dead twigs 

 * Vol. i. p. 148. 



