NOTES AND QUERIES. 465 



Hawfinches and Green Peas. — The Hawfinch seems to be steadily 

 gaining ground in Cheshire, or, at any rate, in the northern part of the 

 county, for which I can best speak ; and I trust it may become firmly 

 established in Wirral, where your correspondent, Mr. E. Comber, records 

 it as nesting this year, in spite of the havoc it has caused among the green 

 peas. I fear the fondness of the Hawfinch for this food will militate 

 against its ever becoming a common species in this neighbourhood, as the 

 market gardeners are sure to kill the robbers, whenever an opportunity 

 occurred, should they become sufficiently plentiful to attract general atten- 

 tion. In the few instances in which the bird has come under my own 

 notice, it has been connected, and to its disadvantage, with green peas. On 

 May 21st, 1888, I found a nest in Higher Peorar Park, near Knutsford, 

 which was built in a somewhat exposed situation, in a large wood composed 

 principally of oaks and beeches, and was easily seen from a distance of fifty 

 or sixty yards ; it was placed on a lateral branch of a small birch, growing 

 at the edge of an open space in the wood, about six feet from the trunk of 

 the tree and fifteen feet from the ground. The sitting bird did not leave 

 the nest until I struck the tree with a stick : the nest, a slight structure of 

 twigs lined with roots, contained one fresh egg, and at the foot of the tree 

 the broken shell of another egg was lying. The keeper informed me that 

 the Hawfinches frequented the Hall garden every year for the sake of the 

 young peas, and not unfrequently forfeited their lives in consequence. On 

 July 30th, 1888, an adult female was sent to me from Wythenshawe, 

 Northenden, where it had been trapped in the pea-rows on the previous 

 day; its stomach contained some broken pieces of maize, and there were a 

 few green peas in its crop. Another bird had been trapped a few days 

 before, but I was unable to obtain it. Some Hawfinches were noticed at 

 Wythenshawe in 1884. In the summer of 1888 a man named Joseph Bell 

 showed me an adult bird and a young one, which he shot " five or six years 

 ago, this green pea time," in a market garden at Didsbury, just on the 

 Lancashire side of the county boundary. The old bird was feeding the 

 young one with peas when both were shot. A second young bird was 

 picked up in a garden close by, about the same time, where it was fighting 

 with a Song Thrush. I heard the other day from a friend that he had 

 trapped two birds in his pea-rows, at Han wood, Salop, in the summer of 

 1889. — Chakles Oldham (Ashton-on-Mersey). 



Hawfinch in Lincolnshire. — Is not this bird more common now than 

 it was a few years ago? I fear it will become rare again if it is shot down 

 so mercilessly by gardeners. Within a mile of this place two gardeners 

 shot no fewer than five, three of which they told me were old birds, and 

 two young. They were shot early in August, during the close season ; but 

 how can one inform against one's neighbours' gardeners ? — Henry F. 

 Allison (Beckingham, Newark). 



