THE CHAFFINCH. 341 
and retiring habits, which lead it to eschew the vicinity of man and to bury 
itself in the recesses of forests. So extremely wary is the Hawfinch, that to 
approach within gunshot is a very difficult matter, and can seldom be accom- 
plished without the assistance of a decoy-bird, or by imitating the call-note, 
which bears some resemblance to that of a robin, It feeds chiefly on the 
various wild berries, not rejecting even the hard stones of plums and the 
laurel berries. In the spring, it is apt to make inroads in the early dawn 
upon the cultivated grounds, and has an especial liking for peas, among 
which it often works dire havoc. 
The nest of the Hawfinch is not remarkable either for elegance or pecu- 
liarity of form. It is very simply built of slender twigs, bits of dried creepers, 
grey lichens, roots, and hairs, and is so carelessly put together that it can 
hardly be moved entire. The eggs are from four to six in number, and their 
colour is very pale olive-green, streaked with grey and syotted with black 
dots. The birds pair in the middle of 
April, begin to build their nests about 
the end of that month, and the young 
are hatched about the third week in 
May. 
THE true FINCHES are known by 
their rather short and conical beak, 
their long and pointed wings, and the 
absence of nostrils in the beak. Eng- 
land possesses many examples of 
these birds. 
The CHAFFINCH is one of our com- 
monest field birds, being spread over 
the whole of England in very great 
numbers. 
The specific title of C@ALEBS which 
is given to the Chaffinch, signifies 
“a bachelor,” and refers to the annual 
separation of the sexes, which takes HAWFINCH OR GROSBEAK.—(Cocco- 
place in the autumn, the females thraustes vulgaris.) 
departing to some other region, and 
the males congregating in vast multitudes, consoling themselves as they best 
can by the pleasures of society for the absence of the gentler portion of 
the community. 
The note of this bird is a merry kind of whistle, and the call-note is very 
musical and ringing, somewhat resembling the word “ pinck,” which has 
therefore been often applied to the bird as its provincial name. 
The nest of the Chaffinch is one of the prettiest and neatest among the 
British nests. It is deeply cup-shaned, and the materials of which it is com- 
posed are moss, wool, hair, and lic.iens, the latter substances being always 
stuck profusely over the surface, so as to give it a resemblance to the bough 
on which it has been built. The nest is almost invariably made in the up- 
right fork of a branch, just at its junction with the main stem or bough from 
which it sprang, and is so beautifully worked into harmony with the bark of 
the particular tree on which it is placed, that it escapes the eye of any but a 
practised observer. Great pains are taken by the female in making her nest, 
and the structure occupies her about three weeks. The eggs are from four .o 
five in number, and their colour is a pale brownish buff, decorated with 
several largish spots and streaks of very dark brown. 
The colour of this pretty bird is as follows. At the base of the beak the 
feathers are jetty black, and the same hue, but with a slight dash of brown, 
