88 THE GOLDFINCH 



some laborious occupation. Its short tail and wings unfit it for 

 long aerial voyages, and its thick neck and ponderous bill denote the 

 presence of great muscular power, and such, indeed, it both has 

 and requires. It is not a common bird, and was until within the 

 last few years considered to be migratory ; but so many instances 

 have occurred in which its nest has been found, that no doubt is now 

 entertained of its being a constant resident. In Berkshire I have 

 several times seen two or three together busily occupied in picking 

 up the seeds which had fallen from the cones of a spruce fir. On 

 one occasion a nest was brought to me by a man who had found it 

 built on some twigs which grew from the trunk of a tall oak-tree ; 

 it was built of the tangled white lichens which grow on trees, on a 

 foundation of a few roots, and contained five eggs. I afterwards 

 discovered another nest of exactly similar structure, which I be- 

 lieved must have been built by the same bird, but it was empty. 

 In Hertfordshire a single Hawfinch visited my garden one winter 

 for several days in succession, and diligently picked up and cracked 

 the stones of laurel cherries, from which Blackbirds had, a few 

 months before, as busily stripped the pulp. In the cherry orchards 

 in the neighbourhood they are not uncommon, where, even if not 

 seen, their visits are detected by the ground being strewed with 

 halves of cherry-stones, which these birds split with their powerful 

 beaks as cleverly as a workman with the chisel. Their note I 

 have never heard, but the proprietor of the orchards assured me that 

 he had often detected their presence by the low twittering noise which 

 they made, a description the truth of which a writer quoted by 

 Yarrell confirms. I have never seen a nest in Hertfordshire, but 

 on several occasions have observed their eggs among the collections 

 made by the country boys in the neighbourhood. Besides cherry- 

 stones, Hawfinches feed on hazelnuts, hornbeam seeds, the kernels 

 of the fruit of the hawthorn, seeds of various kinds, and, when they 

 can get them, green peas, for the sake of which they often venture 

 into gardens. They usually build their nests in trees at an 

 elevation varying from twenty-five to thirty feet, and the nest is 

 composed of dead twigs, intermixed with pieces of grey lichen ; 

 this last material varying much in quantity in different nests, but 

 being never absent. 



THE GOLDFINCH 



carduelis elegans 



Back of the head, nape, and feathers round the base of the bill black ; fore- 

 head and throat blood-red ; cheeks, forepart of the neck and lower parts 

 white ; back and scapulars dark brown ; wings variegated with black, 

 white and yellow ; tail black, tipped with white. Length five inches. 

 Eggs bluish white, speckled with pale purple and brown. 



This little bird, as sprightly in its habits as it is brilliant in its colour- 



