THE CHAFFINCH. 
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usual number which the chaffinch's nest contains : 
and sometimes only three. The thorn, and most of 
the evergreen shrubs, the sprouts on the boles of 
forest trees, the woodbine, the whin, the wild rose, 
and occasionally the bramble, are this bird's favour- 
ite places for nidification. Like all its congeners, it 
never covers its eggs on retiring from the nest, for 
its young are hatched blind. 
There is something peculiarly pleasing to me in 
the song of this bird. Perhaps association of ideas 
may add a trifle to the value of its melody ; for 
when I hear the first note of the chaffinch, I know 
that winter is on the eve of his departure, and that 
sunshine and fine weather are not far off. His first 
song tells me, that in a day or two more we shall 
hear the cooing of the ring-dove, and see it rise and 
fall in the air, as it flies from grove to grove, and 
that this pretty pigeon, so shy and wary during the 
winter, will in a day or two m.ore allow me to ap- 
proach within ten paces of it, as it feeds on the new 
springing verdure of the lawn. 
Say, ye learned in ornithology, say, what is it 
that causes this astonishing change in the habits of 
the ring-dove ; and forces it, I may say, to come 
close to our dwellings, and to coo incessantly from 
early February into late October ; and then to shun 
our society abruptly, as though we had never be- 
friended it at all ? 
The chaffinch never sings when on the wing ; but 
it warbles incessantly on the trees, and on the hedge 
rows, from the early part of February to the second 
week in July ; and then (if the bird be in a state of 
