A RESIDENT BIRD. 



231 



the back and shoulders are dark chestnut ; the hind-part 

 light brownish grey, gradually changing to the same colour 

 as the head ; the upper wing coverts are blackish brown 

 tipped with white ; the lower parts are yellowish brown, 

 with white linings to the tail coverts ; feet and bill, flesh 

 colour. The plumage and air of the bird altogether indi- 

 cate that it is one of soft unobtrusive manners and mild 

 skies; unfitted to contend with stormy weather and bleak 

 exposed places. 



HAWFINCH. 



Although the Hawfinch is described in most books as a 

 winter visitant, yet recent and careful observation has esta- 

 blished the fact that it is a resident bird, and the idea of 

 its being only partially so has doubtless arisen from its 

 extreme shyness. The nest has been met with in Epping 

 Forest, at Windsor, and in some other places, but always 

 closely concealed in the woodland depths, to which the 

 bird retires about April. The situation of the nest is 

 generally among the close foliage of a bush or tree, five or 

 six feet from the ground, though sometimes in the thick 

 top of a pine or evergreen. It is a shallow fabric, formed 

 of sticks and lichens, and lined with fibres of roots. The 

 eggs are from four to six in number, and of a greenish 

 white, mottled with grey and brown, the prevailing colours 

 of the bird itself, whose note, when it does sing, which is 



