1 72 THE 8 MA LLER J1RITTSTT EIRT)S. 



operations aro commenced. The Chaffinch is a skilful architect, and 

 constructs a nest of wonderful neatness and compactness. The materials 

 used for tho exterior are grasses, fibrous roots, and stalks of plants, 

 intermingled with pieces of bark, spiders' webs, moss, and lichens; the 

 latter aro fixed on tho surface, and render it so similar in appearance 

 to tho branch on which it is placed that only tho experienced nest- 

 hunter is able to discover it. The lining consists of wool, feathers, 

 and tho hair of tho horse or cow. Tho last is obtained by tho birds 

 from the cracks and crevices in fences or trees in tho pasture fields, 

 against which the cattle are in the habit of rubbing themselves. 

 Besides tho branches of trees, the Chaffinch not uncommonly builds in 

 the ivy on walls, or among the twigs of the hawthorn and othor 

 bushes. 



A correspondent of the "Field Naturalist's Magazine," relates that 

 a pair of these birds placed their nest in a shrub so close to his 

 drawing-room windows that he was able to observe their operations. 

 Tho female alone worked at the structure, and was almost unceasingly 

 employed on it for nearly three weeks. "Think of this, bird-nesters," 

 says Mr. Morris, and we heartily echo his sentiments, "and leave the 

 artist the product of her toil; take gently out, if you will, an egg or 

 two for your collection, but leave her some to gladden her maternal 

 heart." The eggs are four or five in number, generally of a dull bluish 

 green colour, thinly spotted with reddish brown, and having a few 

 irregular lines of tho same. The colour is, however, rather variable; 

 somo have been found of a uniform dull 'blue, without any spots. 

 While the female sits tho male perches close on the branches, and 

 cheers her with his song, and when she quits tho nest in search of 

 food, takes her place. The young are hatched in about a fortnight, 

 and are fed by both parents exclusively on insects. Two broods aro 

 usually reared in a season. 



The Chaffinch has a short but mellow and cheerful song, which is 

 sometimes heard as early as the end of February. Macgillivray says, 

 "the people of the south of Scotland most unpoetically imagine it to 

 resemble tho words 'wee, wee, wee, wee drunken sowie/ to which no 

 doubt it bears some resemblance." In Belgium, where the song of 

 tho Chaffinch is highly esteemed, trained birds aro brought together 

 by their owners to compete with each other. Heavy bets are laid as 

 to tho result, tho bird that 'trills' the oftenest .in tho course of an 

 hour being considered the victor. The ordinary call-note of this species 

 resembles the syllables 'twinJe, twink,' or 'pink, pink;' hence two of 

 its popular names. 



Tho farmer too often looks upon the Chaffinch as a deadly enemy, 



