534 FRINGILLID&. 
“The young are hatched about the third week in May, 
and as soon as they are able to provide for themselves, 
they unite with the old birds in flocks, varying in numbers 
from fifteen or twenty to one hundred, or even to two 
hundred individuals. In this manner they remain through 
the winter, feeding on the hornbeam seeds which have 
fallen to the ground, the newly-cracked shells of which 
are to be seen in abundance at their haunts; the birds 
only separate at the approach of the breeding season. I 
believe the male has no song worth notice; in warm days 
in March I have heard them, when a number have been 
sitting together on a tree, uttering a few notes in a soft 
tone, bearing some resemblance to those of the Bullfinch.” 
A female in the possession of Mr. Bartlett sung the notes 
of the Linnet ; but being afterwards hung out of doors, it 
learned to imitate the song of a Blackbird, though but 
indifferently ; on the occurrence of the autumn moult this 
season she discontinued her imitations of the Blackbird’s 
song, and seemed afterwards to have forgotten it. 
Mr. Doubleday remarks, “that although so common in 
his neighbourhood, the Hawfinch is but little known, which 
is to be attributed to its shy and retired habits.” These 
birds generally perch on the highest branches of a tree, or 
upon a dead or naked bough, from whence they keep so 
good a look out that it is very difficult to get near them. 
I have known a Hawfinch to be shot as near London as 
Notting Hill, and two others were caught in that neigh- 
bourhood by a bat-fowling net. Mr. Jesse, in his in- 
structive Gleanings, says that this bird breeds about Roe- 
hampton, and refers to one nest that was found in the 
grounds of Lord Clifden, at the extremity of a branch of 
a horse-chestnut tree near the lodge, and it has been known 
to build in other localities in Surrey but a few miles 
