THE HAWFINCH 97 



and it flies stealthily up to the evergreens, perching a moment 

 on some outlying branch, then rapidly hopping into the thickest 

 cover. The Hawfinch is astir early in the morning, and then 

 I often see him upon the ground, where he looks remarkably 

 clumsy and out of place, searching amongst the grass for 

 seeds, or turning over the brown beech leaves in quest of 

 fallen mast. 



It is curious how the habits of some birds are precisely 

 the same in this country as they are in distant lands, where 

 one would naturally expect to find them considerably modified, 

 owing to the altered conditions of their surroundings. I had 

 many opportunities of studying the habits of the Hawfinch 

 in the evergreen oak forests of Northern Africa. One would 

 almost be led to think that the cause of the bird's shyness in 

 England was owing to the manner in which it is persecuted 

 by gardeners and collectors, if we did not find it just as wild 

 and wary in these forest solitudes where it is never molested 

 by man. I first met with the Hawfinches in a clearing of the 

 forest, where the trees were scattered up and down in little 

 clusters, and, as a rule, it was only when they flew from tree 

 to tree that I could get a view of them. Sometimes I observed 

 them sitting quietly amongst the branches, turning their large 

 heads from side to side in evident alarm, and peering about 

 in all directions as if in search of the danger. The flight of 

 the Hawfinch is undulating, but sometimes straightforward, 

 and is then very rapid. As the birds flew from tree to tree I 

 noticed that they usually dropped down into the branches in 

 preference to flying up into them from below. When sitting 

 in the trees the males occasionally uttered a twittering note 

 which put me in mind of the Greenfinch. In fact, the Haw- 

 finch possesses slight claim to rank as a songster ; in the 

 vernal year it utters a few loud notes which might almost be 

 called monotonous, if several birds did not join in the chorus, 

 when the general effect is far from unpleasing. Many birds 



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