146 THE FINCHES 



any rate, when he sleeps in such places, lays down feathers in fact, 

 makes a feather-bed for his warmth and comfort during the night. 1 

 All this, as before stated, is for the winter. In summer the more 

 primitive lodgment of trees, shrubs, and reed-beds is as welcome 

 to these as to other members of the Finch family, and the house- 

 sparrow, especially, will roost amidst the upper branches of the 

 former, undeterred by the frequent contingency of its being a rainy 

 night. 2 



The above are perhaps the most interesting habits of the 

 Fringillidce, in connection with the important matter of going to 

 bed, that are commonly open to observation in this country though 

 that expression can hardly be applied to those of the brambling. 

 The crossbill's are possibly more interesting than any, since "many 

 an aery wheel" accompanies its frequent social flights above the fir 

 forests of its real home, and these would be no doubt intensified 

 before the final descent into them for the night, which is passed 

 amidst their densest gloom, takes place. But of this I can find no 

 very arresting account. Of the rest of the species it is sufficient to 

 say, 3 shortly, that the bullfinch and redpolls roost in thick bushes, the 

 goldfinch and hawfinch in tree-tops the latter, also, in hedges during 

 the winter the chaffinch in trees, bushes, and hedges, the twite in 

 plantations, 4 and the siskin in the thickest parts of coniferous and 

 other trees. 



Though the roosting habits of socially-minded birds in the winter 

 may be said to touch their flocking ones, yet they are not of the 

 essence of this latter activity, and have, probably, nothing to do with 

 its origin. Something, therefore, should be said in regard to the 

 social or congregating impulse, as exhibited in varying degrees by 

 our finches, treating this as a force in itself, without reference to any 

 purpose or incidental advantage that may go along with it. Yet it is 



1 Zool. Garten, 1878, p. 205. 2 C. A. Witchell, Zool., 1890, p. 77. 



3 Naumann, Naturgeschichte der Vogel Mitteleuropas, iii. 



4 When he can get them, doubtless, understood. He cannot, for instance, in the Shetlands, 

 where he is common. 



