old moss-covered apple-trees usually are most carefully decorated, so as to resemble the moss- 

 grown bough on which the nest is placed. According, however, to Mr. Robert Gray, it differs 

 in its style of nest-building, and " varies the structure according to the locality which it happens 

 to frequent. In rural places, away from the dust and smoke prevailing near cities and large 

 towns, the nest is a perfect model in its way for neatness and compactness of form ; but in less 

 favourable situations, where the building-materials are not so fresh, it is slovenly and untidy. 

 A series of nests before me gives ample proof of this, some being composed entirely of moss 

 closely interwoven, others of lichens, laced all over with spiders' webs, whilst those obtained in 

 the outskirts of Glasgow are built of dirty straws, pieces of paper, and bits of blackened moss 

 intermixed, forming as a whole such a cradle as a country shilfa might feel ashamed of. I once 

 took one from a smoke-begrimed hedge within the city boundaries, which had, among other odd 

 things adhering to it, three or four postage-stamps exhibiting various effigies that a juvenile 

 collector would have prized." In Dresser's collection are several nests from various parts of 

 Europe, one taken by him at Uleaborg, in Finland, being of the most artistic structure. It was 

 placed on a birch-tree, and is neatly ornamented with pieces of yellow and grey lichens and small 

 bits of birch-bark, so as to resemble a portion of the tree itself, and is finally most carefully 

 lined with soft moss and bits of down and wool, through which some fine roots show every here 

 and there; the entire nest is most carefully shaped and finished. Mr. Benzon describes the nest 

 from Denmark as much the same as those obtained by us here in England, and in Finland by 

 Dresser ; one he describes as having been found at Dyrehaven was decorated all over the outside 

 with small pieces of newspaper : the outside measurements of a series of nests obtained in Den- 

 mark he gives as from 90 and 60 to 140 and 70, and the inside from 45 and 35 to 50 and 40 

 millimetres. In Dresser's collection is a series of Chaffinches' eggs from Finland, Sweden, 

 Germany, and Great Britain, most of which are of the ordinary type, purplish grey, washed 

 with green, clouded with rufous here and there, and spotted and blotched with dark red. Three, 

 however, obtained at Uleaborg, are pale blue, here and there marked with faint purple, and 

 spotted with small dark-brown dots. Mr. Benzon has also obtained the light vai'ieties of the 

 eggs of this species in Denmark, and says that he considers that there are two races of the 

 Chaffinch there, as he has never seen the light- and the dark-coloured eggs in the same nest, and 

 further remarks that the light-coloured varieties appear to run larger than the dark eggs. The 

 general measurements he gives as from 19 by 15 to 22 by 16 millimetres. Dr. Rey writes that he 

 has measured one hundred eggs, and finds the average size 19*3 by 14 - 6 millimetres, the largest 

 measuring 22 - 75 by 15*5, and the smallest 17'0 by 13*7 millimetres respectively. " I have," 

 writes this gentleman, " several abnormal eggs, of which I may describe the following : — one egg 

 with a dark blue ring round the centre ; secondly, several eggs having the ordinary ground- 

 colour, without any spots or markings ; and, thirdly, a sitting of five eggs, which are pale blue, 

 slightly spotted with dark brown at the larger end." 



Referring to its habits during the breeding-season, Macgillivray writes that " the pairing 

 takes place without much display of animosity among the males, who at this season are fre- 

 quently heard repeating their ordinary note from two to six, generally four times, in rapid 

 succession, tweet, tweet, tweet — tweet. At other periods it is generally a single ttveet, rather 

 deep and mellow. Its song is short, modulated, mellow, and for a time pleasant to the listener, 



