90 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
HAWFINCH. 
CoccoTHRAUSTES vuLGaRis, Pall. 
Pl. XIV., fig. 9. 
Geogr. distr.—Central and Southern Europe; ranges eastward to 
Japan and southward to N. Africa. Resident in Great Britain. 
T’ood.—Seeds, berries, peas, fruit. 
Nest.—Vaviable in structure, some nests being more compact than 
others; it is formed of twigs, roots, and dried plants, varicd with 
pieces of grey lichen, lined with finer roots and hairs; it resembles the 
nest of the Bullinch on a larger scale. 
Position of nest.—In high thorns, hornbeam, holly, boughs of oak, 
fir, or fruit trees, growing in groves and orchards. 
Number of eggs.—8-6; usually 4-5. 
Time of nidification.—V-VI; May. 
According to Doubleday and Hewitson, the nest of this 
species is “‘most commonly placed in an old scrubby 
whitethorn bush, often in a very exposed situation.” 
According to Newton, “‘it is in what are known as the 
Home Counties, Middlesex, Essex, Hertford, Buckingham, 
Berks, Surrey, and Kent, that the Hawfinch is most 
plentiful, and its abundance in the last is shown by the 
fact that in 1876 Lord Clifton knew of more than fifty nests 
at Cobham. Mr. Cecil Smith has reason to believe that it 
has bred in Somerset, and to the eastward of long. 2° W. it 
has been ascertained to breed in every county south of 
York, save Stafford, Leicester, and Lincoln, in all which, 
however, the discovery of its nest is probably only a matter 
of time.” —(Hist. Brit. Birds, 4th ed., vol. ii., p. 101). 
It is a singular thing, in face of the above fact that, though 
nearly the whole of my birds’-nesting has been done in Kent, 
between Herne Bay and Maidstone, I have never yet come 
across a single nest of the Hawfinch. 
The song of this bird is rather poor, but not altogether 
unmusical ; the bird itself, though of a somewhat thick-set 
plebeian build, is very handsome in its colouring. 
The nest, which is somewhat saucer-shaped, is usually 
placed in an apple or pear tree in an orchard, or in an old 
whitethorn, frequently in an exposed situation. Seebohm 
says that it ‘“‘does not often build in shrubberies, and its 
nest is somewhat rarely placed in evergreen trees; but it 
has been found amongst ivy.” 
