Passeres 7 1 



so that it finds its strong beak of the greatest use. 

 Rows of peas are often nearly stripped when the young 

 have left the nest. This structure, composed of roots 

 and grass, often with an admixture of lichens and a base 

 of twigs, is placed in the fork of a large hawthorn or 

 fruit-tree, if not towards the top of a pollard or on 

 some horizontal branch, and contains five or six curious 

 bluish or greenish eggs with fine olive and greyish 

 markings, which may be either spots or scrawls. 

 Breeding takes place in May, when the bird is remark- 

 ably shy, as indeed is its usual habit. The flight is 

 laboured. The characteristic whistle, however, soon 

 draws attention to it; the song, on the other hand, is 

 inconsiderable. After the nesting season the Hawfinch 

 often wanders about the country, and it is then that we 

 not uncommonly hear reports of a big fawn-coloured 

 bird with a black throat, grey neck, and blue and white 

 on the wing having been seen in a garden. 



The Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis britannica), one 

 of the few species that live not unhappily in a cage, 

 though a delicate-looking bird of the Canary type, is also 

 partly fawn-coloured, but is beautifully marked with red, 

 yellow, black and white. It is difficult to form a clear 

 idea of its numbers in England as, after a serious 

 decrease in the nineteenth century, it seems to be 

 undoubtedly increasing again ; but nests might now 

 be found in any county, while such has been the case 

 across the Scottish Border even as far north as Perth- 

 shire and Skye. Many migrants pass to and from the 

 Continent at the usual seasons, and scientific names 

 have been given to several more or less distinct forms ; 

 it is impossible, therefore, to lay down any exact limits 

 for each, but they occur throughout Europe, north 



