.3iS 



The Chaffinch. 



rich chestnut-brown, with a tinge of lighter chestnut, 

 approaching to pink, below the flanks. The head, 

 iDack, and upper parts generally, are bluish, or slate- 

 coloured, down to the rump, which is of a light green 

 hue, and the tail is dark brown with w^hitish edges to the 

 feathers, with the under parts whitish. The ground colour of 

 the wings is black, with white edges and bars and patches 

 -of white upon them. The beak is greyish-blue in spring and 

 -summer, and flesh-coloured during the winter. The legs and 

 feet are brown. The female is not so brilliant as the male* 

 nor so variegated in colour. Her ground colour is more 

 brown in the upper parts and lighter in the lower parts of 

 the body. 



The continuous chink, chink " of the birds and their 

 ■excited actions near the nests betray their situation. The 

 nest is usually built in deciduous trees in the forks made by 

 l3ranches, and very frequently among or upon the interlaced 

 branches of apple trees. Though the situation and the par- 

 ticular tree are indicated by the anxious birds, the nest itself 

 is difficult to discover, as it is designed in imitation of its 

 surroundings. A nest in an apple tree, for instance, is 

 arranged with hair, grasses, moss, feathers, rootlets, and 

 lichens woven with these to make it resemble the apple 

 branches among which it is placed. It is a beautiful struc- 

 ture and the most elaborate nest made by any British bird, 

 ^except perhaps that of the " Bottle T\t'\(^Parus caudatus) 

 and the Golden Crested Wren {Reguius cristatiis). 



The female usually lays four or five eggs, though six are 

 ■occasionally found. The egg is pale green or greenish-grey, 

 sometimes with a pink hue, thickly covered with reddish- 

 brown markings of all shapes. There are two broods in the 

 year. The young, according to Seebohm, are soon left to 

 themselves by their parents, and feed upon all kinds of insects 

 during the summer. 



In France and in Germany ihe chaffinch is reg-arded as a 

 useful friend to cultivators, especially by fruit growers. 



