A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 



species is local on account of the requirements 

 of a suitable place for a nest, it may really be 

 less abundant than it appears to be. Never- 

 theless, where there are good breeding-places 

 its numbers are as great as formerly. 



53. Greenfinch. Llgurinus chloris (Linn.). 

 The greenfinch was at one time more abun- 

 dant than it is now, and might be seen in 

 considerable flocks in rickyards in the winter, 

 where it fed chiefly on the corns of barley ; 

 and I have observed quite large flights cling- 

 ing to the sides of ricks of that grain. There 

 are few of our small birds which have bills 

 strong enough to break up a barleycorn, but 

 the greenfinch can do it quite easily. The 

 husk containing the seeds of the mangel- 

 wurzel, when ripe, is exceedingly rough and 

 hard, and is proof against the attacks of nearly 

 all our seed-eating birds ; but the greenfinch 

 can crush it, and will certainly do so if not 

 kept off when the seeds are ripening. 



54. Hawfinch. Coccothraustes vulgaris, Pallas. 

 This is one of the very few birds which 



have become more abundant within the last 

 twenty or thirty years. Hastings, writing in 

 1834, reported it as infrequent in the county. 

 Lees speaks of it as a rare bird around Mal- 

 vern, but sometimes breeds. Some time in the 

 ' thirties ' a hawfinch was shot in the valley 

 of the Avon, which was thought to be so re- 

 markable a bird that a great many people 

 visited the house where it was to examine it. 

 Of late years it has become comparatively 

 common in the county, where it breeds annu- 

 ally. 



55- Goldfinch. CardueUs elegam, Stephens. 



Mr. Aplin, in his work on the Birds of 

 Oxfordshire, mentions two distinct varieties 

 of the goldfinch ; the one large, light in 

 colour and brilliant, which is a summer mi- 

 grant, and the other small, dark-coloured and 

 resident. Both varieties occur in Worcester- 

 shire, but the larger and brighter one certainly 

 remains with us until at least mid-winter, and 

 I have specimens which were shot in the alder 

 trees of the Avon in the middle of December, 

 1896. We have a fair number of goldfinches 

 breeding with us, due in some measure to the 

 preference shown to the pear tree as a nesting- 

 place, and the pear is essentially a Worcester- 

 shire tree. When our pear trees have lost 

 their leaves the nests of the goldfinch may be 

 seen on the very ends of the branches, looking 

 like small round balls. The seeds of all kinds 

 of thistles, as well as of the teazel and bur- 

 dock, afford food for the goldfinch, and in 

 mid-winter the alder and ash are visited and 



the seeds eaten, but it is only the germ of the 

 latter which is consumed. 



56. Siskin. Carduelis spinus (Linn.). 



The siskin is an irregular winter visitor, 

 occasionally appearing in considerable num- 

 bers, though whole seasons may pass and none 

 or only a few stragglers be seen. The Rev. 

 F. O. Morris, in his work on British Birds, 

 has the following : ' When at school at 

 Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire, I and my 

 schoolfellows used to shoot several of these 

 birds out of pretty considerable flocks, which 

 used occasionally to frequent the gardens near 

 the town, and more generally the alder trees 

 by the side of Charford brook.' He also speaks 

 of their being at Stoke Prior, a little lower 

 down the same stream, in 1852. The alder 

 trees by the side of our streams are the chief 

 resorts of the siskin in the years when it visits 

 us, which was the case in the winter of 1889- 

 90. Their stay, however, was very brief; they 

 were here to-day and gone to-morrow. 



57. House-Sparrow. Passer domesticus (Linn.). 

 The sparrow it need hardly be said is only 



too abundant, and is a scourge to other birds 

 of his own size. 



58. Tree-Sparrow. Passer montanus (Linn.). 

 This species is very much less abundant 



than the house-sparrow, and though frequent- 

 ing open fields and small enclosures is very 

 seldom seen near houses. The nest is often 

 placed in a hole of a pollard withy or apple 

 tree, or in the thatch of a cattle shed, but is 

 always outside, and seldom, if ever, inside the 

 building. 



59. Chaffinch. Fringilla ccelehs, Linn. 



The chaffinch is a common and well-known 

 bird, though by no means a favourite with the 

 growers of radishes. The nest, the beauty of 

 which is unrivalled, is usually placed in the 

 fork of a bush or tree, but occasionally a de- 

 parture from the general habit has been 

 noticed. A nest was seen by the writer in 

 a recess or niche in the upright bole of an 

 aged and lichen-covered pear tree, and so 

 much resembled the bark of the tree that 

 had not the bird flown out it would have 

 escaped notice. Another was placed in the 

 crooked and tangled roots of an asli tree in the 

 vertical bank of a brook, only a foot above the 

 water, and a third was in a still more unlikely 

 place, namely in the side of a wheat rick in a 

 rickyard. The last-named one was described 

 by a labourer who found it as being ' like a 

 ball of worsted ' stuck in the side of the rick. 

 He might have said of grey worsted, for that 

 was what it considerably resembled when seen 



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