42 THE BIRDS OF OUR RAMBLES. 



are the nesting-places of both these Titmice. Each 

 makes a warm and slovenly nest of moss, dry 

 grass, and feathers ; and the eggs, varying from 

 five to seven in the Coal Titmouse, and from five 

 to twelve in the Blue Titmouse, are white, spotted 

 with reddish brown, the markings on those of the 

 latter being on an average smaller and finer. 



Within the seclusion of the garden and the 

 shrubbery, or amongst the wooded cover of the 

 park, no less than half-a-dozen different kinds of 

 Finches have their home and breeding -place. 

 Some of these may be met with elsewhere, as we 

 shall see in our other rambles, and some others 

 change their ground with a changing season, yet 

 all are sure to be seen during the course of our 

 observations in these particular places. Best 

 known of them all, of course, is the House 

 Sparrow. The gardener, to his sorrow, knows 

 this pert and merry bird too well, especially in 

 seed-time, when it is too attentive to the beds ; it 

 also commits some havoc amongst the flowers, 

 particularly the crocuses. With its habits here 

 we have little to do, having already given an 

 account of its life history in our previous ramble. 

 Almost as well known as the Sparrow is the 

 widely GREENFINCH (Fringilla ckloris), his showy dress 

 of yellowish green, and the bright yellow in his 

 wings and tail, being too well known to warrant 

 more detailed description. The Greenfinch is a 

 bird of the shrubberies in summer ; he loves to 

 rear his young amidst the dense foliage of the 

 yews, the laurels, and the hollies ; yet at other 

 seasons he affects other haunts, as we shall see 

 when we meet him amongst them. His harsh, 

 long-drawn call-note of pee-zh is a very familiar 



