THE CHAFFINCH. 281 



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 favour- 

 ite places for nidification. Like all its congeners, 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 



