CHAFFINCH. 103 



The nest of the Chaffinch, being so elaborate and highly finished, natu- 

 rally takes some little time in its construction ; indeed, with the excep- 

 tion of the Long-tailed Titmouse, the female Chaffinch probably takes 

 more time to build her charming little nest than any other British bird. 

 You may visit it day after day for-nearly a fortnight ere you find it ready for 

 the eggs. First the outside framework made of rootlets, moss, and grasses, 

 woven beautifully together, and further strengthened with cobwebs and 

 lichens, is completed ; then the inside is lined with a thick and soft bed of 

 hair and feathers and the down from various seeds. Were you to stay 

 near the place during the whole period the nest is being made you would 

 probably never see the male bird do any of the nest-building. He, how- 

 ever, brings the greater part of the materials to his mate, who receives 

 them, and, unaided, weaves them into the structure which is a matchless 

 piece of handiwork. No bird shows more anxiety for its unfinished nest 

 than the Chaffinch. Approach the nest, even though it be but just com- 

 menced, and the birds will flit around you, and by their actions and 

 incessant cries invariably betray the site. Dixon thus writes : " Few 

 nests better illustrate the art of ' mimicry ' in birds than the nest of 

 the Chaffinch. Wherever the Chaffinch's nest is found there too may be 

 observed an example of her mimicry. Let us glance at a few striking 

 instances of this peculiar protective power. Here on this grassy bank is a 

 gorse bush, dry and withered, killed by the relentless frosts of the preced- 

 ing winter. Amongst its prickly branches, however, a Chaffinch has made 

 her nest. Found merely by accident, let us examine it closely. The out- 

 side of the nest is thickly covered with little pieces of decayed wood, 

 obtained from a log close by, which assimilate her nest most admirably to 

 the brown dead foliage of the gorse bush and its withered blooms. So 

 closely does it resemble surrounding tints that, seen at a short distance, 

 it appears part of the bush itself. Take another instance : on the lichen- 

 covered branch of this hoary birch tree something is seen which appears 

 to be a knotted prominence of the bark ; closer inspection reveals the 

 nest of the Chaffinch, its walls being decked with lichens and spider's 

 webs, the whole harmonizing so closely with the tints of the bark as to defy 

 all but the keenest gaze to detect the bird's secret. Another instance : 

 in yonder hawthorn tree clothed in fairest bloom is a Chaffinch's nest ; 

 the lichens and the decayed wood, however, have been discarded, and in 

 their place are small scraps of paper, so thickly studding the outside of the 

 nest as to appear at a casual glance nothing more than an exceptionally 

 handsome bunch of bloom. The female Chaffinch is also much less showily 

 arrayed than the male, and as their nest is an open one she alone performs 

 the duties of incubation." 



The eggs of the Chaffinch are from four to six in number. Typical 

 eggs are pale bluish green in ground-colour, clouded with pale reddish 



