106 HAWFINCH. 



a nest containing eggs in one of the apple trees in the 

 orchard. 



The Hawfinch can be readily recognised by anybody 

 from the large size of its head and bill, which are 

 quite out of proportion to the rest of its body. It is a 

 handsomely coloured bird, its predominating colours 

 being chestnut, black and yellowish brown, the latter 

 being the colour of the under parts. 



Being an exceedingly shy bird, its favourite haunts 

 are the woods and dense shrubberies, or the thickly 

 planted orchards. In these latter it commits great 

 depredations during the fruit season, stripping the 

 cherry trees to get at the stones of the fruit, which it 

 easily cracks with its powerful beak. It also robs the 

 pea sticks sadly ; but its chief food is seeds of various 

 kinds, such as those of the hawthorn and beech, also 

 the berries of the yew tree. 



The Hawfinch is a poor songster, only uttering very 

 few notes; but in confinement it is said to have 

 imitative powers. In the Zoologist (1882, p. 189) 

 there is an account of one reared from the nest which 

 would utter the piercing whistle of a Grey Parrot 

 which was kept near him. He would also repeat the 

 "sweeting" and "clucking" sounds with which his 

 owner addressed him, and was very fond of his own 

 name "Jock," though the " J " sadly troubled him. 



The nest is built towards the latter end of April or 

 the beginning of May, and is found in various situa- 

 tions, in oak, fir and apple trees, in thorn and holly 

 bushes, and at heights varying from five to forty feet. 

 It is made of twigs intermingled with lichen ; the inside 

 is formed of dry grass, rootlets and sometimes a little 

 hair. It is very similar to the nest of the Bullfinch 

 on a larger scale. 



