THE CHAFFINCH. 281 
eggs, are the usual number which the chaffinch’s nest 
contains: and sometimes only three. The thorn, and 
most of the evergreen shrubs, the sprouts on the 
boles of forest trees, the woodbine, the whin, the wild 
rose, and occasionally the bramble, are this bird’s 
favourite places for nidification. Like all its con- 
geners, it never covers its eggs on retiring from the 
nest, for its young are hatched blind. 
There is something peculiarly pleasing to me in 
the song of this bird. Perhaps association of ideas 
may add a trifle to the value of its melody; for 
when I hear the first note of the chaffinch, I know 
that winter is on the eve of his departure, and that 
sunshine and fine weather are not far off. His first 
song tells me, that in a day or two more we shall 
hear the cooing of the ring-dove, and see it rise and 
fall in the air, as it flies from grove to grove, and 
that this pretty pigeon, so shy and wary during the 
winter, will in a day or two more allow me to ap- 
proach within ten paces of it, as it feeds on the new 
springing verdure of the lawn. 
Say, ye learned in ornithology, say, what is it 
that causes this astonishing change in the habits of 
the ring-dove; and forces it, I may say, to come 
close to our dwellings, and to coo incessantly from 
early February into late October ; and then to shun 
our society abruptly, as though we had never be- 
friended it at all ? 
The chaffinch never sings when on the wing; but’. 
it warbles incessantly on the trees, and on the hedge 
rows, from the early part of February to the second 
week in July ; and then (if the bird be in a state of 
