88 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
GREENFINCH. 
LiguRINus CHLORIS, Linn. 
Pl. XIV., figs. 1-8. 
Geogr. disty.—Throughout Europe, excepting the extreme North; 
common on the western side of North Africa: common and resident in 
the British Isles. 
Food.—Seeds, grain, fruit and insects. 
Nest.—Rather bulky, the walls varying in thickness from one to 
two inches, very firmly constructed as a rule, though occasionally 
loosely put together: very variable as regards its materials, the fol- 
lowing being some of the types:—l. An outer framework of 
rough twigs and coarse roots, the walls of fine roots and green moss, 
and the lining of fine reddish fibrous roots. 2. Of coarse, half-decayed 
straws, bents, and roots, thickly lined with fine root-fibre. 3. Of 
slender, withered grass-straws and a mass of greyish wool felted 
together and lined with a few black horse-hairs. 4. Of sticks, roots, 
and moss, externally ; of wool, vegetable fibre, and less moss, inwardly, 
lined with a few black horse-hairs. 5. Of coarse, plaited roots 
externally ; of finer roots, moss, slender white hairs, and a little wool, 
matted together inwardly, and lined with afew black horse-hairs. 
6. Of green moss with a few twigs and roots, and thickly lined with 
cocoanut fibre and a few black hairs. 7. Loosely constructed of green 
moss and spiders’ webs, with a few twigs; lined with vegetable fibre 
and a few black hairs. 8. Of twice the usual depth (like a nest within 
a nest), formed of green moss, wool, and fibrous roots in patches, 
which give it an extremely soft and variegated appearance, a few twigs 
outside, and a little hair in the lining. 
Position of nest.—In hawthorn hedges and bushes: rarely in loose 
hedges ; in furze, laurustinus or other bushes, in low trees or on stumps 
of branches of tall trees; rarely very far from the ground. 
Number of eggs.—4-6; rarely less than 5. 
Time of mdification.—IV-VI; May. 
This is one of the commonest of our birds, its nest being 
most abundant in hawthorn hedges or clumps of tall furze 
bushes. The eggs are sometimes heavily blotched with 
large chocolate-brown splashes. 
Mr. E. T. Booth, in his ‘Notes on British Birds,’ 
(Pt. VIIT.) mentions a curious nest of the Greenfinch, 
nearly twice the usual size, placed at the height of about 
six feet in a privet bush, and having the foundation entirely 
composed of a large mass of the Common Stonecrop (Sedum 
acre) torn up from a rockery close at hand.* 
A very interesting nest was obtained for me by my friend 
My. Salter ; he found it on the 9th June, 1885, at Downton, 
in Salisbury, built at a height of eight feet from the ground 
* For this note I am indebted to Mr. Harting. 
