PLATE I 

 CHAFFINCH. Fringilla c celebs 



May 28//r, 1893. This nest was built on the small branch of a ha/el at an angle 

 in the branch where some small leafy twigs grew out of the knot. It was 

 built of moss, and covered with lichens and beautifully lined with horsehair, 

 and contained five fresh eggs. The tree was an outstanding one at the top 

 of a small wooded glen above the Lake of Monteith, Perthshire, and the 

 whole place abounded in Chaffinches' nests. 



The old bird was very tame, and sat on the nest all the time I was 

 getting my camera fixed on to a neighbouring branch, and I thought I was 

 going to be able to include her in the picture; but on the approach of the 

 black focussing-cloth she took fright and hastily left the nest, and all the 

 time I was engaged in photographing it, the two birds flew about the branches 

 around and kept up quite a continuous chorus of anxious cries, being joined 

 by all the cock Chaffinches in the neighbourhood. 



This same day, not far from the nest in the Plate, I witnessed the 

 fiercest fight between two cock Chaffinches that I have ever seen, resulting in 

 the most fatal injuries to one of the combatants. I heard an awful din going 

 on in a whitethorn bush, and on going up to investigate I saw two cock 

 Chaffinches going at each other ' hammer and tongs,' being egged on by an 

 admiring crowd of other birds, all calling loudly. They chased each other 

 round and round the bush, sometimes rolling on the ground, pecking at each 

 other, and battering each other with their wings. After an exceptionally 

 violent struggle on the ground, one of the birds lay still and the other 

 fluttered away to a bush near. On picking up the unfortunate loser, I found 

 that the whole of one side of his head was practically bald, one eye was half 

 torn out, and his left wing was broken in two places. I speedily put him out 

 of his misery, and gave him a last resting-place under a big stone beneath 

 the whitethorn. 

 VOL. ii. c 9 



