44 



THE CHAFFINCH 



of grass, roots, etc., being woven into the other materials, thus 

 securing a compactness of considerable strength. The eggs are 

 four or five in number, of a dull bluish-green clouded with dull red, 

 irregularly streaked and spotted with dark, dull, well-defined red 

 markings. Two broods are hatched in the year. The young are 

 chiefly reared upon aphides and various small caterpillars. 



FIG. 34. THE CHAFFINCH AND LEAF-ROLLING CATERPILLAR. 



The chaffinch is very common in Britain, where its haunts are 

 chiefly gardens and shrubberies, hedgerows, and plantations, in 

 winter visiting farmsteads and even dwellings and stables, etc. 

 The song of the chaffinch is lively and pleasant, but lacking variety, 

 and its call-note has a cheerful sound. In the autumn the females 

 separate from the males and remove to a different locality, 

 hence the specific name of ccelebs. Thus gregarious in flocks of 

 males, and in flocks of females and perhaps also their young, the 

 chaffinches abide over winter, and in spring pair. The food con- 

 sists of seeds, chiefly of weeds, such as charlock, chickweed, ground- 

 sel, plantain, etc., insects and their larvae, the young being fed almost 

 exclusively with soft insects. Chaffinches are also very fond of 

 germinating seeds, plucking up seedling Brassicas in cotyledon 



