510 FRINGILLID^E. 



no exception to the rule. The outside of their nest is com- 

 posed of moss, studded with white or green lichens, as may 

 best accord with the situation in which it is built ; the 

 inside is lined with wool, and this again covered with hair 

 and some feathers ; the eggs are usually four or five in 

 number, of a pale purplish buff, sparingly streaked and 

 spotted with dark reddish brown. The place chosen is 

 variable, sometimes it is fixed in the fork of a bush in a 

 hedgerow, on a branch of a wall-fruit tree, frequently in an 

 apple or pear tree several feet above the ground. A cor- 

 respondent in the Field Naturalists' Magazine, relates that 

 a pair of Chaffinches built in a shrub so near his sitting- 

 room window as to allow him to be a close observer of their 

 operations. The foundation of their nest was laid on the 

 12th of April ; the female only worked at the nest-making, 

 and by unwearied diligence, the beautiful structure was 

 finished in three weeks : the first egg was deposited on the 

 2nd of May ; four others were subsequently added, and the 

 whole five were hatched on the 15th. During the time of 

 incubation, neither curiosity nor constant observation from 

 the opened window disturbed the parent bird ; she sat 

 most patiently ; the male bird often visited his partner, 

 but it was not discovered whether he ever brought her 

 food. 



The Chaffinch is too generally distributed over all the 

 British Islands to require extended notice of localities ; it 

 inhabits Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and other northern 

 parts of the European Continent, extending southwards to 

 the shores of the Mediterranean, being migratory in the 

 colder countries, and stationary in those which are warmer. 

 It is found in Sicily, Malta and Crete. It is a common 

 bird in the Levant and in Northern Africa. I have little 

 doubt that it is also found in the Canary Islands and 



