BIRDS' NESTS, 109 



ferent both from the ordinary call-note, and 

 from the cheerful spring song. 



" That bird/' said Mr. Miller, " has its nest 

 very near us. The chaffinch only uses that 

 note when some stranger comes near its nest. 

 I have many times found one by looking care- 

 fully in the trees about which it flies, while 

 making that anxious noise. Their nest is 

 very beautiful, built usually among crossing 

 branches, or in the fork of a bough, but so 

 securely fixed that it can rarely be removed 

 entire without cutting off one or more 

 branches. It is of moss lined with hair and 

 feathers, and decked with moss and bits of 

 white lichen, in such a way as to be quite 

 smooth even on the outside. The rim, too, 

 is different from that of most other birds' 

 nests, neither left rough nor made flat, but as 

 beautifully rounded 'as if it were turned in a 

 lathe. When the chaffinches which have built 

 in our laurel at home have reared their young, 

 we will cut off the branch in which is their 



