80 



CHAFFINCH. 



together both its own fibres, and the coarser materials which are inter- 

 mixed with it, and stuck over the whole. In many of these nests, 

 though not in all, (following the principle of the hat-maker in binding 

 the rim of a hat,) greater strength is given to the fabric by binding the 

 whole round with dry grass stems, occasionally with slender roots, which 

 are partly covered by the staple felt work of moss and wool. A circum- 

 stance also never neglected, is to bind the nest firmly into the forks 

 of the bush, where it is placed by twining bands of moss, felted with 

 wool, round all the contiguous branches, both below and at the sides. 

 The parts of the nest which touch the larger branches also, are always 

 considerably less massive than the open unsupported parts, a thin wall, 

 moulded to the rounding of the branch, being all that is thought 

 necessary for security, warmth, and softness ; which are further pro- 

 cured by a neat lining of hair smoothly woven, and a few feathers. 



I may remark, however, that the Chaffinch does not always line with 

 hair-cloth of its own weaving, for it often iises down, feathers, or cot- 

 ton, with a few long hairs to bind these materials together ; but amongst 

 the numerous specimens of these nests now on my table, more than 

 two-thirds are lined chiefly with hair of various colours, as it can be 

 procured, and from various animals, though that of the cow and the 

 horse seems to be preferred. I have one Chaffinch's nest which appears 

 to be more beautiful than usual, from being lined with a smooth thick 

 texture of cow's hair, all of an orange-brown colour, which forms a fine 

 contrast to the white wool intermixed with grey lichens and green 

 moss around the brim. In some specimens, again, the hairs are nearly 

 all white, and in others all black, though seldom in a mass, and almost 

 wholly worked in hair by hair. If a tuft of hair, therefore, is procured 

 from a tree or a gate-post, where cattle have been rubbing themselves, 

 the Chaffinch seems to pull it minutely to pieces before interweaving it, 

 while the wagtail and some other birds merely flatten it to make it lie 

 smooth. The trees and bushes most commonly selected by the Chaf- 

 finch for her nest, are the elm, oak, crab-tree, hawthorn, silver fir, 

 elder, &c. Mr. Jennings justly remarks that " it prefers gardens and 

 apple-trees," and " will build against a wall or a grape vine," though he 

 is certainly wrong in adding, "rarely or never in hedges." 1 On the 

 contrary, I am certain it very often builds in hedges, particularly in 

 those composed of hawthorn and crab-tree, and I have found one in a 

 closely clipped privet hedge, and another in a thick hedge of holly, 

 though I consider the latter two instances rather unusual. Sepp's 



1 Ornithologia, p. 19, Note. 



