THE CHAFFINCH. 247 



cotton-mills, always made use of cotton in the construction of 

 their nests. The mills were a quarter of a mile distant from each 

 other, and all the nests of these birds erected in the intervening 

 plantations, as well as in the immediate vicinity of the mills, ex- 

 hibited the foreign product, not only as lining, but exteriorly. 

 On remarking to my informant, that its conspicuous colour would 

 betray the presence of the nest, and not accord with the theory, 

 that birds assimilate the outward appearance of their structures, 

 to surrounding objects, he stated, that on the contrary, the use 

 of the cotton in that locality might rather be considered as ren- 

 dering the nest more difficult of detection, as the road-side hedges 

 and neighbouring trees were always dotted with tufts of it. 



Chaffinches feed chiefly on seeds and grain through the winter, 

 as proved by my examination of many specimens : — in all of which 

 fragments of stone or brick were also found, — the gizzard was very 

 strong. Early in the month of May, when a choice of food was 

 to be had, I have on different occasions, observed these birds sud- 

 denly dart from the branches of trees after flies in the manner of 

 the spotted flycatcher. During the winter and early spring, a 

 flock consisting of both sexes was observed regularly to frequent 

 a merchant's yard situated on one of the quays of Belfast, 

 for the purpose of feeding on flax-seed, which was always scat- 

 tered about the place : this seed has proved a successful bait for 

 taking them in traps. Chaffinches, with other seed-eating birds, 

 have been observed in autumn employed in stripping the keys 

 from ash-trees ; getting the seed end in their bills, they chop it 

 until the contents are dislodged, when the capsule falls to the 

 ground.* They sometimes congregate in large flocks before winter 

 actually sets in : at the end of October I have thus remarked 

 them, and occasionally in company with green-linnets. 



There has been much written from actual observation, both on 

 the continent and in Great Britain, and from the days of Linnaeus to 

 the present time, on the subject of the separation of the sexes of 

 chaffinches in the winter. Montagu, writing from Devonshire, says, 



* Poole. 



