THE HAW-FINCH. 6D 



closed wing. The general colour of the quills glossy black, 

 with a slight glaze of purple ; the secondaries and part of the 

 primaries with the points truncated as if shortened by art, 

 and an oblong white spot on the centre of each inner web. 

 The tail, which is not very much produced, and nearly square 

 at the end, with the four middle feathers, except their bases, 

 and the last half of the inner webs of all the rest, except the 

 two outer ones, white, and all the rest of the tail black. The 

 breast and belly pale brownish purple ; and the vent-feathers 

 and under tail-coverts white. In winter the bill and feet are 

 flesh-brown, in summer they are lead-grey, with the tips of 

 the mandibles and claws much paler. 



Though at variance with the characters of the genus, as 

 well as with the laws that regulate the general migrations of 

 Ihe feathered tribes, the haw-finch is, in most of the books, 

 described as a winter visitant. Now that a bird should come 

 to the warmer parts of the country in winter, and not be 

 found then or at any other season in the colder, might have 

 been regarded as conclusive evidence against its being a 

 migrant in latitude ; and more recent and careful observation 

 has established the fact of its being a resident bird, but one 

 of very retired habits in the breeding season. The nest has 

 been met with in Epping Forest, at Windsor, and in some 

 other places, but always concealed in the depth of close forests, 

 to which the bird retires about April ; and it is equally 

 hidden on the continent during the summer. 



The nest is among the close foliage, five or six feet from 

 the ground, arid sometimes in the thick top of a pine or other 

 evergreen. It is a shallow fabric, formed of sticks and lichens, 

 and lined with fibres of roots. The eggs are from four to six, 

 of a greenish white, mottled with greenish grey and brown. 

 The birds are nearly as silent as they are retired ; and their 

 note is soft and inward, something resemblin tl^at of the 

 bull-finch. 



