THE CHAFFINCH. 
is built as to be safe from discovery from any save the most 
keen and diligent eyes. The woods and thickets of Essex 
are considered the best chaffinch districts, but yon may depend 
on finding them in every seclnded wood throughout the conntry. 
The very best time of year to go nesting for chaffinches is from 
the end of the last week in April to the end of the second week 
in May : for this reason, the eggs are laid at the beginning of 
April, and are hatched about the twentieth, so that by the 
second week in May they are pretty well fledged, and enough 
of their feathers have made their appearance to enable you to 
distinguish the cock from the hen. In mercy to the poor 
mother you should endeavour to learn this, as then you can 
leave her the hen birds, and take only the cocks. 
The male nestling may be distinguished from the female by 
these peculiarities. His belly is red, while that of the hen is a 
dingy green ; he has more white in the wing, and the yellow 
circles round the eyes are much brighter in the male than in 
the female. Feed your nestlings on soaked hemp-seed, and the 
crumb of white bread. 
You cannot start too early in the morning (after daybreak, of 
course), when you go chaffinch-nesting. The best way is to 
proceed quietly among the trees till you hear a sharp “ pink, 
pink then endeavour to trace the position of the nest by the 
sound. It is worth discovering, for apart from the treasure of 
chaffinches you may reasonably expect to find, an inspection of 
the marvellous nest itself will more than repay you for your 
trouble. It is shaped like a ball, slightly flattened on the upper 
part, and is as compact and solid as though cast in a mould. 
The materials used in its construction are spiders’ webs, wool, 
cow-hair, and fine twigs. Within it is beautifully lined with the 
softest wool and thistledown. Moreover, it is lashed to the limb 
of the tree with strands of wool, as securely as though it had 
been nailed there. 
Pegging foe Chaffinches. — The most successful, and cer- 
tainly the most humane method of snaring the chaffinch is by 
the process known as pegging. It is extremely interesting, and 
so profitable that a morning’s good sport will enable you to 
bring home ten or a dozen cock chaffinches, all of the boldest 
and best. A friend of mine (mind you, he has had years of 
experience, and possesses, without exception, the best decoy 
bird in England), has caught, in Epping Forest, forty chaf- 
finches from five o’clock till ten on a May morning. 
In the first place you must have a good decoy, or “ pegging ” 
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