HAWFINCH. 
81 
etc. How common they become in certain seasons may be estimated by the 
fact that, in the winter of 1883, Elkington had twenty-one brought to him 
on one day from the vicinity of Ansty, and, during the three years ending 
1885, he believes he must have had sixty or seventy. In Nov., 1884, I 
purchased two .specimens, and on 23rd Feb., 1885, IMr. F. Rowley, my 
assistant, purchased two others. All were males, and were from the vicinity 
of Groby and Ansty. Mr. Ingram, who informs me that it is “ common in 
the Belvoir Woods, haunting large yew-trees,” wrote, on 14th Jan., 1886 
“ Just now the Hawfinch is feeding on the yew-berries ; the ground beneath 
some of our large trees is covered with the shells of the seeds, the seed 
itself being extracted.” A male Hawfinch in fine plumage was sent to me on 
18th April, 1887, by Mr. J. W. Bickley, of Melton IMowbray ; it had been 
picked up dead, having evidently flown against some wire fencing in his 
garden. 
Writing of this species Jlr. Ingram says ; — “ It is shy, builds a slight 
nest ; the young have been taken and reared.” A male, female, and five 
young, in the Museum, were presented by 3Ir. W. T. Everard, on 26th June, 
1867, as having been taken from a nest in his garden at Bardon Hill. On 
4th Aug., 1880, a young bird was picked up dead at Gumley, upon which 
Mr. Macaulay founds his statement (‘Mid. Nat.’, 1882, p. 37) that “It has bred 
at Gumley.” He also says it nested at Blaby in an apple-tree, but I have 
no evidence in support of this. Sir George Beaumont, of Coleorton Hall, 
wrote to Mr. Macaulay on 16th Dec., 1881: — “I have Hawfinches breeding 
here every year.” Mr. F. Firr informs me that, in 1882 (he believes in July), 
be took six eggs out of a nest built in a hawthorn-tree near the Loughborough 
Grammar School ; he is quite sure it was the nest of a Hawfinch, as he saw 
the bird. Unfortunately the eggs were destroyed by a IMouse, and so are not 
now in existence ; the circumstance must therefore be taken for what it is 
worth. Mr. T. A. Macaulay reports the breeding of the Hawfinch in Mr. Farn- 
ham’s grounds, at Quorndon, during the summer of 1888. 
In Rutland. — Resident, generally distributed, and more common than for- 
merly. — It has been seen at Exton, and Mr. R. Tryon has seen it at Oakham. 
Mr. Horn reports that a nest with eggs was taken at Bisbrook in 1885, and 
the Earl of Gainsborough records (‘Zool.,’ 1888, p. 305): — “On May 24th, I 
had the good fortune to find two Hawfinches’ nests, both in apple-trees, and 
each containing five eggs; the eggs in one nest were of the smaller and 
rounder type, with the markings more scattered over the whole surface, and 
the black spots very dark and bright. In the other nest they were of the 
more ordinary type, longer and more pointed, with the dull, dusky, and streaky 
marks peculiar to this egg more evident, and the black spots fewer, and more 
at the larger end.” Mr. R. G. Gwatkin, of Potterne, in a letter to me, supple- 
ments this by saying “I saw the birds, both on the nests and afterwards.” 
G 
