3 MA WTINCH.
I visited tlio garden at the Manor House at Porlslade, and examined tlie. pans tu ascertain if there were
nil} Hawfinches in that locality. I discovered that, nearly every pod was destroyed, hut the peas were extracted
in a ditl'erent manner, and there were no signs of the broad outs indicted by Hawfinches, which reveal the
shape of their beaks. The gardener informed me that Sparrows had caused the damage in this instance,
and nTter watching for an hour I was convinced 1h.it his opinion was correct.
On the Oth of June, 187J, drove over to Plumpton to take a brood of young Hawfinches from the same
garden where the birds bad been shot in 1872. I happened to be a day too late, live youngsters having been
seen by the gardener and keeper in the nest hi the early morning, but only three remaining when I reached
the spot doling the afternoon. These were immediately secured, a landing-net being dropped over the nest,
mid the pair of old birds were soon obtained while flying round the garden with their mouths crammed full or
food for their young ; what they had collected was composed of a large mass of caterpillars and chrysalises of
various kinds. The nest was in the same pear-tree in which the birds had placed their cradle three years
previously, and the three young, which we kept and reared, turned out to he all males. The colours of
the soft parts of these juveniles were as follows :— I'pper ami low i r u ai ili - dull oln e-v el, on . s;ape \ el Ion ;
inside of mouth and tongue a very bright flame-col cured red, shaded here and their with a pale sky-blue and
streaked w Itb a beautiful cerise tint, A few lines referring to the three young birds taken from the nest on
the 9th of June, 1S75, may not be out of place. For a week or two they all required to be fed, but shortly
after commenced to help themselves to whatever was provided. As previously stated, they all proved to be
males, I be two that had left the nest being in all probability females. As they had eviuced a disposition to
snap at one another, we concluded that a bite from their powerful beaks might be attended with serious results,
and consequently kipt them separate in three large wire cages, placed side by side, but so that each occupant
was just out of the reach of his nexl-door neighbour's spiteful mandibles. Within a year one of these youngsters
was found dead at the bottom of his cage, and, on an examination being made, it was discovered that the skull
bad been pierced by a broken wire, pointing downwards from the top of the cage, which must have caused
instant death. The two that remained went through the regular changes in the colouring of the beak every
year; all through the latter part of autumn and early winter the mandibles were a dirty flesh-tint. The change
commenecs towards the end of January, a livid blue gradually showing near the base and the points becoming
slightly darker. I And one note entered on the 15th of February, 1883, stating, "beak now quite b l u e ;"
again, on March the 0th the same year, " beak now blue with black points." During the whole time they
remained in captivity the changes took place at much the same dates; the eyes never varied, the tint of the
iris corresponding precisely with the colour of the grey band of plumage round the neck. The seed-tins of the
birds were always tilled with hemp; but they also received a continuous supply of every description of vegetables,
with apples, nuts, hips and haws, and all the plants employed in the composition of salads, scarcely anything
eatable coming amiss to them. The long time they lived may, I think, be accounted for by the changes of
diet they enjoyed ; their excitement (snapping, perking, and rating at one another) when their dainties were
being produced was most amusing. They frequently indulged in vocal performances; some persons might
po-sibly have termed it singing, but the sounds emitted were exceedingly discordant, resembling the squeaking
of on ungi-ensed cart-wheel produced with variations. While giving utterance to their quaint melody they
occasionally became much excited and danced or hopped on their perches from one side of their cages to the
other in a most extraordinary manner; their actions ought to have been seen to be thoroughly understood,
as to accurately describe the antics the infatuated birds went through is utterly impossible. Though
previously perfectly healthy, one commenced, in May 1883, to exhibit signs of weakness in Ins right foot; the
toes all contracted and remained closed, the poor creature appearing much crippled for some months. At length,
however, be recovered the use of his disabled limb and was much the same as ever for a time. The following
year he suffered from a second attack, and In the summer of 1885 grew gradually weaker, and becoming still
HAWFINCH,
more helpless by degrees, died on the 21st of December. The survivor had for some weeks also been showing
unmistakable signs that old age was working its course, and it was now evident the caul was drawing near.
Once or twice the nut' at in rite half-blind ci ipple was di - severe I l \ iug on his hick on the sand on the bottom
hoards quite helpless, but, on receiving assistance, he came round and kept up till found huddled into
a ball, cold and slifl', in a corner of his cage on the morning of the 11th of January, 1SSG. Nearly eleven years
old must be considered a good age for hand-reared birds, as I have frequently heard naturalists, and others who
considered themselves good auIboriiies, declare that this species could not be kepi for any length of lime in
captivity. A liberal and varied diet may, however, be suppose,1 to account fur their prolonged vitality. After
death, the old couple who had spent their lives side by side for so many years were not divided; my gardeners
at Brighton, who performed the work of the undertakers, dug up the box in which the lirst was interred, and
inserting the remains of the second, replaced " the chest" * in the long grass, beneath the weeping-willows,
that forms the burial-ground for the birds kept in cootiuement.
Terrell states, " The bill of the adult male in summer is a deep leaden blue " ; this does not agree with
observations I made, having remarked, in both wild specimens shnl and caged birds reared in confinement, that
though the base was of that tint, the points of both mandibles were a dull black, the colour penetrating further
back towards the gape of the mouth. One or two of our British authors declare that many of this species leave
our shores in winter; the young they consider most probably are the migrants. During all the time I have
passed steaming about in the North Sea and the Channel, In the latter part of the year, not a single specimen
was ever observed on wing, nor did I hear of their being secured on the light-ships round our eastern or southern
coasts. Seebuhm, in his beautifully illustrated book on the eggs of British Birds, tells us that the Hawfinch
pairs about the middle of April; and this remark agrees with my own experience, as 1 am of opinion that their
nests are usually commenced shortly after that date. The cradles of the Hawfinch are roughly constructed
and put together on the outside, strong and prickly twigs being occasionally entwined; the interior, however,
is usually finished off with far greater skill, the lining being composed of fine materials, hair, wool, and
occasionally feathers being twisted in together. The only two nests I examined were placed in the limbs of
the same old pear-tree in the garden at Plumpton, at a height of about eight or niue feet from the ground.
* Toil is the name given to nil oat. i-uJBti by the natives of the Broad ili-trirt ID the cut of Norlulk.