CnAFFINCII. 
79 
The female is of a dull green. above ; the breast and belly of a brown 
or dirty white ; the wing's have the same markings as the male, but less 
brilliant. 
This bird makes a most elegant nest of green moss, curiously studded 
with lichen interwoven with wool, and lined with feathers and hair. It 
builds against the side of a tree, particularly in ivy, or in some forked 
branch of a bush ; but particularly in apple-trees overgrown with moss 
and lichen, and, like many other birds, adapts the materials of its nest 
to the surrounding colour ; an instinct of no small importance. 
am by no means inclined to agree with Montagu, in the doctrine 
that birds designedly adapt the materials of their nests to the colour 
of the ol)jects around them. In the case of the pretty nest of the 
Chaffinch, the materials, on the contrary, appear to me to vary accord- 
ing to the opportunities the birds have of procuring them ; among 
twelve specimens in my cabinet, no two are exactly alike, and most of 
them differ very considerably. Some are formed with the finer sorts 
of green moss from trees, {Hypnura tenellum, Lestrea sericea-, L. 
polyantha^ Szc.,) but more commonly small grey or yellow lichens 
(^Parmelia stellaris^ P. perlata, Lecanora virella^ &c.) are at least 
stuck over the outside ; and, in one instance, which seems unique, the 
thin bark scales of the American plane-tree {Platanus occidentalism 
Sometimes I have found the nest-webs of spiders bundled up into little 
tufts, and stuck in similarly to lichens ; and in the vicinity of the 
cotton factories at Catrine, in Ayrshire, I have seen many Chaffinches' 
nests stuck over, in the same manner, with small tufts of cotton wool. 
But the indispensable substance in all these nests, how different so- 
ever they may l)e in the outward materials, is fine wool, with which 
the moss, lichen, spiders’ nests, tufts of cotton, or bark scales, are 
carefully and neatly felted into a texture of wonderful uniformity. 
The nature of the workmanship of these little birds will be seen to 
extraordinary advantage, when compared with the moss baskets for 
holding eggs or fruit, which we meet with in some of the shops in the 
metropolis. The moss (usually Hypna) upon the fruit and egg bas- 
kets, is stuck on in a very rough way, bits of the branches projecting 
all over, as if the maker possessed not the skill to render it smooth ; 
but the bird’s nest, when newly finished, and before it has been battered 
by storms, or exposed to the wear and tear incident to the rearing 
of a brood of nestlings, is almost as smooth on the outside (more so 
internally), as if it had been felted together by a hat maker. The 
wool of course is the material by which this is effected ; no other sub- 
stance which the bird could select, being capable of matting so nicely 
