106 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAxND BIRDS 
eye-patch on each side of the massive beak, and 
another black patch on the throat. The hen is 
much the same, though a little duller, in colour, 
and has not a whit less bill. Though a distinctly 
shy bird, the Hawfinch often haunts gardens, and 
the first view of a pair of them quietly parading a 
lawn or grass-plot is a thing to be remembered. 
For no very obvious reason it has certainly become 
much commoner than it was thirty or fifty years 
back, and it seems to be gradually extending its 
range northwards and westwards from its head- 
quarters in the Home Counties. It builds about 
the beginning of May, generally near the top 
of small trees or large bushes, from fifteen to 
thirty feet from the ground ; it is especially fond 
of old hawthorns and other trees with plenty of grey 
lichen, such as oaks and apple trees. The nest is a 
rather loose, flat-topped structure built of dry 
twigs, mixed with bits of lichen, and neatly lined 
with fibrous roots or strips and shreds of the thin 
inner bark of the lime-tree. The character of both 
the bird and its nest shows very interesting general 
resemblances and special difl^erences when compared 
with the Bullfinch. The eggs, four or five in 
number, are very unusual and handsome in 
appearance, being clear green in ground-colour, 
with a few spots and dashes, and many long 
scribbled hair-streaks of greyish, greenish, and 
