368 
THE LADIES’ MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
the American woods the bark of birch trees has been found quite 
undecayed where the wood of the tree enclosed in the bark was quite 
Fiz. 86. 
Fig. 87. 
rotten. Rope, on the contrary, very soon becomes rotten if exposed to 
the action of the atmosphere without protection. 
ESSAYS ON ORNITHOLOGY. 
BY MR. MAIN. 
{Concluded from, page 300.) 
Among the birds most common in gardens, may be considered all the 
species belonging to the genus Fringilla; as they are found generally to 
build in fruit-trees, or in some similar situation. This genus also includes 
a number of birds, known under their English names to every observer of 
nature. 
The Chaffinch (F. coelebs) was called the bachelor bird by Linnmus, 
because during the winter the males of this species, known by their pink 
breasts, are found flocking together, without a single brown-breasted 
female among them. The females are supposed to migrate in November ; 
but whether this be the case or not, they are never seen during winter, 
except in small groups, and always apart from the males. They begin to 
pair in February or March, and the female takes more pains in the fabri- 
