THE BIRD-LIFE OF LONDON 



near to Kennington Park. Doubtless other observers 

 can add very extensively to this list. 



The Chaffinch is entitled to be included in the special 

 list of London's commonest birds. Its cheery call-note 

 and bright and spirited song give life and animation to 

 many a suburban spot otherwise songless and almost 

 void of bird-life. In suburban London there are many 

 gardens, shrubberies, pleasure-grounds, and so forth that 

 offer this sprightly bird a safe asylum, and here from 

 February onwards to the summer the short, emphatic 

 song of the Chaffinch may be heard, even in the busy 

 streets near by, in the lulls of traffic noise. The well- 

 known call of pink-pink is often heard during autumn 

 and winter in places where the bird never stays to nest, 

 but its transient visits are none the less welcome for that. 

 The food of this species is composed of small seeds, 

 grain, and, in summer especially, insects and larvae, the 

 young being practically reared on the latter fare. In early 

 spring the flocks that have been massed since the previous 

 autumn break up into pairs, and the resumption of song 

 by the male heralds the breeding season. At this time, 

 too, the sharply uttered u-whit of the male is heard 

 very frequently. The nests for the first broods are 

 commenced in April, for later ones in June or July. 

 For neatness and beauty the dainty, cup-like nest of the 

 Chaffinch is almost without an equal. It is placed in 

 some triangular fork of the branches of a fruit or other 

 tree, or less frequently in a bush or hedgerow, sometimes 

 supported on a thin branch close to the trunk of a big tree, 

 to which it is also partially attached. The outer materials 

 of moss, dry grass, roots, lichens, and wool are all finely 

 felted together with cobwebs, cocoons, and vegetable 

 down, and finally lined with hair, feathers, wool, and 

 down. The outside is made to resemble the surroundings 

 as closely as possible, so that nests vary a good deal in 

 appearance. One was found in Hyde Park built to a 

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