76 BRITISH BIRDS. 



■wMlst rose-briars are not unfrequently selected as a site. Of evergreens, 

 the yew and the spruce are perhaps most often selected ; whilst fruit-trees 

 are very rarely chosen. The nest is built amongst slender twigs, some- 

 times very loosely, and occasionally it is placed in a fork, or simply built 

 on the flat bough of a yew. Mr. Maurice C. H. Bird writes to inform me 

 that he knew a nest of this bird at Poxwell, in Dorset, in 1880, built in a 

 hollow at the top of a gatepost. Few nests are prettier than that of a 

 Greenfinch. It is not so neat as the nest of a Goldfinch or a Chaffinch ; 

 but its very slovenliness is the secret of its beauty. The outside is made 

 of moss, dry grass, and wool, through which a few slender twigs are often 

 entwined ; the inside is lined first with moss, and then with hair, feathers, 

 and wool. Some nests are much more elaborately constructed than others ; 

 and Dixon has known them built entirely of new-mown hay, without any 

 lining whatever. The Greenfinch takes but little trouble to conceal its 

 nest; but the peculiarities of the site selected render it almost invisible 

 except to the closest scrutiny. The eggs of the Greenfinch are from four 

 to six in number, and vary from pale greenish white to white with the 

 faintest tinge of blue in ground-colour. The markings are usually almost 

 confined to the larger end, and are purplish-brown spots, blotches, and 

 more rarely streaks, with underlying spots of pinkish brown. As a rule, 

 there are as many underlying markings as surface ones ; but in some eggs 

 the former predominate. They do not vary much, but some are very 

 boldly streaked, whilst others have the markings in a confluent zone round 

 the end of the egg; and my friend Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun., writes to me 

 that he had a nest of this bird in his garden in which the eggs were un- 

 spotted — certainly a very exceptional occurrence. They vary in length 

 from -9 to '73 inch, and in breadth from -62 to '53 inch. The eggs of the 

 Greenfinch very closely resemble those of the Goldfinch and Linnet ; and 

 small specimens are indistinguishable from large eggs of the two latter 

 species. They also resemble those of the Crossbill so closely that it is 

 almost impossible to distinguish them ; but, as a rule, they are perhaps 

 smaller in size. The Greenfinch is one of those birds that sometimes sit 

 upon their first egg as soon as it is laid. When the nest is menaced by 

 danger the old birds often become extremely anxious, and glide about from 

 branch to branch above the intruder's head, uttering their plaintive alarm- 

 note; and should the nest contain young, the female wiU approach still 

 closer, and by every action and cry show her anxiety. The duties of 

 incubation are performed by the female ; but the male is seldom far away 

 from the nest. The young are tended some time after they quit the nest, 

 when they are abandoned, and the old birds mostly rear another, and in 

 gome cases perhaps even a third, brood. 



In early summer these young Greenfinches congregate into flocks and 

 little parties, which chiefly frequent the grass-fields, in company very often 



