580 
6 
stone broken only so as to get at the kernel; and therefore it appears to prefer those with but 
little of the fleshy part, but especially such as have a large and well-filled stone, and the wild 
cherry is a favourite fruit with this bird. After the cherry-season it will frequently visit the 
gardens, and has rather a liking for peas. During the winter it feeds chiefly on the seeds of the 
beech and hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) when these are to be had, and in the spring will not 
unfrequently eat buds. It is also said to feed on insects of various kinds during the spring and 
summer ; and that the young are, when newly hatched, fed on these I know from experience ; for 
I have found large green caterpillars in the stomach of young taken from the nest. 
For the purposes of nidification the Hawfinch chooses some greenwood grove, an orchard, 
or even places where small knolls of trees are scattered about here and there; but so far as I 
know or can ascertain, it never resorts to conifer growth for the purposes of nidification. With 
us in England it usually breeds in fruit-trees in the orchards, or else in woods which are com- 
posed entirely of non-evergreen trees, and then usually places its nest in a high thorn, a 
hornbeam, or a holly; on the Continent I have seen the nests in oak-groves, both in young 
growth and in tolerably large trees. I examined a nest which contained young early in June 
of the present year. It was in a tolerably large oak in a grove not far from Staufen, in 
Breisgau, and was placed in the main fork about 35 or 40 feet above the ground. From below 
it looked like a small Jay’s nest, being tolerably large, and had the base composed of small 
sticks or large dry twigs; but though flatly built, the interior was neatly rounded out and 
lined. It was constructed of twigs, roots, and dried plants, and lined with fine roots and a few 
hairs. Sometimes the nest is but slightly built, and at others it is a carefully built and stout 
structure. The eggs, from three to five or six (usually, however, four to five) in number, are in 
shape and size similar to those of Zanius collurio, and in colour dull greenish grey or greyish 
sea-green, marked here and there with purplish underlying shell-blotches and brown overlying 
surface-spots; all the eggs I have seen have also peculiar purplish or brown lines fantastically 
drawn on the surface of the shell, and which are not unfrequently collected together so as to 
form a sort of wreath round the larger end. In size those in my collection vary from #3 by 23 
to 23 by 22 inch. 
Mr. Sachse, who has found it breeding near Altenkirchen, says that it arrives at its breeding- 
haunts in March, but does not commence nidification until the trees are covered with foliage. 
Here, he writes, “‘the nest is placed in an oak- or beech-tree, especially such as are overgrown 
with grey lichens; and it is built from about two to fifteen metres above the ground, always 
close tothe main stem of the tree; and when on an old gnarled beech tree, it is very hard to find. 
The nest is built, first, of small dry twigs, on a platform of which a neatly formed structure of 
roots and plant-stems is placed, and is ornamented with white moss, resembling at the first glance 
from below the nest of a Missel-Thrush. The eggs, from five to six in number, are deposited 
late in May or early in June, as I have taken them from the 7th May to the 3rd June. 
“When the young are hatched they are most carefully tended by the parent birds until 
long after they can fly. The old birds do not seem to care so much for their eggs, as when 
these are taken they seldom put in an appearance, but immediately come close to the intruder 
should the nest be invaded when the young are hatched. When I took the young bird above 
described, the old ones came and flew close round, uttering a harsh note of alarm and anxiety. 
