NEST BUILDING. 
309 
from certain glands that the tiny nest is finished in 
a few days. 
The True Weavers represent the acme of science in the 
building department. It is not necessary to go out of our 
own country to find examples of these. Our Hawfinch, 
Greenfinch, and Crossbill, may well be reckoned among 
them. It is undeniable that they are but bunglers 
compared with some members of their guild, though 
they infinitely surpass all those birds we have hitherto 
mentioned. The first felt and weave together the 
twigs, grasses, and moss, of which they construct 
the main portion of the nest, lining the same with 
feathers, hair, and the finer grasses; the last-named 
build a very pretty nest of twigs, lichen, and moss, 
and provide the same with a roof, by placing it under 
shelter of a thick sprig of larch or fir.* The nest 
of the Linnet is remarkable for its beautiful lining of 
thistle-down; that of the Siskin for the general neatness 
of its structure. More advanced still are the nests of the 
Chaffinch, Goldfinch, and Long-tailed Tit. That of the 
Chaffinch, in particular, is a charming production: the 
exterior layer is always composed of mosses and lichen, 
closely imitating the colouring of the branch on which 
the nest is placed; next comes a layer of soft grasses, 
hair, and feathers, and the whole, both outside and inside, 
is smoothly finished off and artistically woven together. 
The nest of the Goldfinch is built of small roots and 
fibres interwoven with moss and wool; the interior, 
again, is sparsely lined with a few small fibres and 
* The nest of the Hawfinch can scarcely he said to he felted and woven as 
regards its structure, as it is hut little better built than that of the Wood Pigeon, 
and is inferior to that of the Bullfinch, being merely made of a few sticks loosely 
laid together, interspersed with pieces of lichen, and lined sparsely with roots and 
horse-hair.— W. J, 
2 T 
