510 FRINGILLID A. 
no exception to the rule. The outside of their nest is com- 
posed of moss, studded with white or green lichens, as may 
best accord with the situation in which it is built ; the 
inside is ined with wool, and this again covered with hair 
and some feathers; the eggs are usually four or five in 
number, of a pale purplish buff, sparingly streaked and 
spotted with dark reddish brown. ‘The place chosen is 
variable, sometimes it is fixed in the fork of a bush in a 
hedgerow, on a branch of a wall-fruit tree, frequently m an 
apple or pear tree several feet above the ground. A cor- 
respondent in the Field Naturalists’ Magazine, relates that 
a par of Chaffinches built in a shrub so near his sitting- 
room window as to allow him to be a close observer of their 
operations. The foundation of their nest was laid on the 
12th of April; the female only worked at the nest-making, 
and by unwearied diligence, the beautiful structure was 
finished in three weeks: the first egg was deposited on the 
2nd of May; four others were subsequently added, and the 
whole five were hatched on the 15th. During the time of 
incubation, neither curiosity nor constant observation from 
the opened window disturbed the parent bird ; she sat 
most patiently ; the male bird often visited his partner, 
but it was not discovered whether he ever brought her 
food. 
The Chaffinch is too generally distributed over all the 
British Islands to require extended notice of localities ; it 
inhabits Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and other northern 
parts of the European Continent, extending southwards to 
the shores of the Mediterranean, being migratory in the 
colder countries, and stationary in those which are warmer. 
It is found in Sicily, Malta and Crete. It is a common 
bird in the Levant and in Northern Africa. I have little 
doubt that it is also found in the Canary Islands and 
