HA.WFINCH. 53 



holes in the interior of a thatch-roof, in water-pipes and receivers 

 for eaves-gutters, in holes in walls or old buildings, in ivy clothing 

 either a wall or a tree, in fir trees, in wall-trees, especially if 

 large and high, below Rooks' nests, in deserted nests of large 

 birds, frequent in all these sites, it seems difficult to say where it 

 may not be found. Often, too, it becomes a mass of straw and 

 dry grass and lavish feather-lining, big enough to fill a man's hat 

 of large size. The eggs are very various in the intensity of 

 surface markings. They are white, speckled and spotted and 

 streaked with ash colour and dusky brown, some so slightly as to 

 be pale grey, others so profusely as to be very dark " pepper and 

 salt." They vary in number from four to six. Whenever the nest 

 is built in a situation naturally open at top, it is domed over by 

 the little constructor. Fig. 7, plate IV. 



101. GREENFINCH (Coccothraustes Chloris). 



Green Grosbeak, Green Linnet, Green Bird. A sufficiently 

 common species, and often seen in winter, in stubbles which afforci 

 a sufficiency of the seed-constituents of its food, in large flocks. 

 Neither does it yield an insignificant portion of the egg spoils of 

 the country-boy. The nest is usually built in a hedge, and it 

 dearly loves a thick massive thorn hedge for the purpose. In one 

 such, bordering an orchard in Essex, ot perhaps seventy or eighty 

 yards long, I found one day a dozen or more of Greenfinches' 

 nests, almost all with eggs in. It is, however, not seldom to be 

 met with in an evergreen or other bush in the garden ; sometimes 

 in a fir tree, raid again in a fruit or ornamental tree. The 

 materials employed are roots, moss, grass, with a lining of the 

 same, only finer, and plentiful hair. I have often noticed the 

 presence of a kind of scrubby scales about the interior of one of their 

 nests. The eggs are four, five, or six in number, and vary much 

 in size and but little in general appearance. They are white, 

 suffused with a bluish tinge, and with reddish or purple spots and 

 streaks, intermingled with some of a darker shade. Fig. 8, plate 

 IF. 



102. HAWFINCH. (Coccothraustes vulgaris). 



Common Grosbeak, Haw Grosbeak. A bird which seems to 

 occur but sparingly in our island, and for long, supposed to be 

 merely a winter visitor. It is not uncommon about Epping Forest, 

 and has been found nearer London, and in many of the Southern 

 counties. Mr. Doubleday has given the best account of its habits 

 generally, as well as of its nest and eggs. It seems to have no 

 peculiar situation for its nest preferred to all others, but builds 

 indiscriminately in trees or bushes, and at various heights from 

 the ground. The nest is said to be made of twigs, ' ' with fibrous 

 roots and grey lichens laid flat on them;" the whole structure 





