96 



XA TURA L HIS TOR Y. 



tree, which is the situation usually selected for it ; but it is found in a great variety of places, often 

 on tall trees, sometimes in the fork of a shrub, not unfrequently among ivy on a wall, and still more 

 commonly among the twigs of a hawthorn hedge. Gardens, orchards, hedges, groves, copses, and 

 woods are all inhabited by the Chaffinches at this season, but they are very rarely met with in 

 the depth of large woods, especially of those composed of fir. When a person approaches the nest, 

 the birds manifest much anxiety, flying about, or hopping among the twigs, and repeating their 



CHAFFINCH. 



ordinary tweet in a hurried manner. The female sits very close, and from her colour and that of the 

 nest is seldom perceived, but when aware that she has been discovered, she slips off with alacrity, and 

 joins the male in evincing her anxiety as to the result of the intrusion." 



The nesting of the Bullfinch is as follows : -About the beginning of May it begins to construct 

 its nest, which is rather loosely formed of small dry twigs, with a lining of fibrous roots, and is 

 placed in a bush, frequently of hawthorn, or on the horizontal branch of a spruce. The eggs, four 

 in number, are of a rather broad oval form, nine and a half twelfths long, seven and a half twelfths in 

 their greatest diameter, of a bluish or purplish white colour, spotted and streaked with purplish-grey 

 and reddish-brown. 



The second section contains the Finches with narrow palates (Arctipalatales), which have the 

 finch-like character of the lower mandible less strongly pronounced, the palate being narrower, 



