OPEN NESTS 181 



scraps of paper, all fastened to the moss with 

 spiders' webs. This garniture is often more abun- 

 dant on one side of the nest than the other, and 

 the whole structure is moulded and felted to the 

 exact shape of the crotch or fork that supports it. 

 The inside cup is remarkably well finished, smooth, 

 and neat, with scarcely a hair protruding above the 

 rest. There are many other birds that seek to 

 conceal their nests by practising the art of mimicry, 

 but none excels the Chaffinch. We might also 

 mention that the female alone is the builder, and 

 that a well-finished nest will often take nearly a 

 fortnight to complete — a wonderful example, truly, 

 of intelligent perseverance. An almost equally ex- 

 quisite nest is made by the Goldfinch {Fringilla 

 carduelis). This is frequently placed in the fork of 

 a tree, or at the extremity of some drooping branch. 

 It is almost as neat as that of the preceding species, 

 the materials being equally well felted and made of 

 very similar materials, but the garniture of lichens 

 is not so prominent and it is considerably smaller. 

 The Linnets are equally elaborate builders, delighting 

 to place their nest in a gorse bush ; but in their 

 case small twigs and stalks are often worked into 

 the margin and foundation, as they also are into 

 the very similar abode of the Twite {Linota flavirostris). 

 The Crossbills {Loxia) also make use of a still greater 

 number of twigs loosely twined together, and forming 

 with grass and roots the outside of the nest, which 



