Mr. Doubleday says in continuation, that the young are
hatched about the third week in May, and, so soon as they
are able to provide for themselves, unite with their parents,
in flocks, varying in number from fifteen or twenty to one or
even two hundred. In this manner they remain through the
winter, feeding on the hornbeam-seeds which have fallen to
the ground, and only separating at the approach of the breeding
season. The male has no song worth notice; but may
be heard in warm days in March, when several are sitting
together on a tree, uttering a few notes in a soft tone,
bearing some resemblance to those of the Bullfinch ; and
Montagu is a witness to its singing pleasantly in winter.
Mr. Doubleday further remarks, that though so common
in his neighbourhood, the Hawfinch is but little known,
which fact is to be attributed to its shy and retired habits.
It seemed to him to be rapidly increasing in numbers, and
the anticipation, thus expressed, has been and is being fulfilled.
The foregoing observations leave little to be added on
the habits of this bird. Even while compiling the present
account of it, the Editor has received overwhelming proofs *,
in addition to the evidence to the same effect published since
Doubleday’s paper appeared, of the constant spreading and
ever increasing abundance of the Hawfinch. No attempt to
account for this can be made. The bird, however, still remains
a local species, and though it has become so plentiful
in many parts of the country, there are yet wide districts in
which it is absolutely unknown. The partiality, observe”
by Doubleday, for the hawthorn as a site for its nest seems
to be pretty well maintained, but the bird has learnt to build
also in almost any kind of tree or shrub, from the cedar of
Lebanon to the ivy on a wall, as well as to use almost any
kind of materials for its purpose—the structure being
always a platform of twigs, with a shallow cup, often neatly
wrought, in its centre. Still with this ever increasing
abundance of the species and extension of its range its shy
* I t would be quite impossible here to give a tithe of the very full details with
which he has been favoured by many correspondents to whom he is greatly indebted
for their information.
habits have undergone little if any change. It generally
perches on the highest branch of a tree, or upon a dead or
naked bough, whence it keeps so good a look-out that it is
very difficult of approach, and even if seen it may well pass
for some common species of Finch if the observer be not
pretty acute.
The eggs, in number from four to six, are commonly of a
pale olive-green, spotted with black, and irregularly marked
with bold streaks and dashes, or vermiform lines of dark
olive. Other specimens have a very decided blue tinge, and
occasionally the markings are almost or even entirely wanting.
Others have the ground-colour reddish as Lord Clifton
informs the Editor. They measure from 1*08 to *9 by
from ‘79 to *62 in.
It is in what are known as the home-counties, Middlesex,
Essex, Hertford, Buckingham, Berks, Surrey and Kent that
the Hawfinch is most plentiful, and its abundance in the last
is shewn by the fact that in the present year (1876) Lord
Clifton, as he has informed the Editor, knew of more than
fifty nests at Cobham. Mr. Cecil Smith has reason to
believe that it has bred in Somerset, and to the eastward of
long. 2° W. it has been ascertained to breed in every county
south of York, save Stafford, Leicester and Lincoln—in all
which, however, the discovery of its nest is probably only a
matter of time. In winter it is recorded as having occurred
in every English county except Westmoreland, and sometimes
in great numbers, for it would seem that it occasionally
migrates to this country in considerable flocks. Evidence of
its appearance in Whies is not forthcoming, but it is no unusual
winter-visitant to Ireland, having been obtained at
various places from Donegal round the eastern side of that
island to Kerry, while it may possibly have bred there, since
Mr. Watters says that an egg sent to him from Meath was
similar to those of this species obtained frojn the continent.
The same observer notices the tameness of examples seen
by him in the Phoenix Park, near Dublin, where it has been
more often observed than elsewhere in Ireland in singular
contradistinction to its well known peculiarity in other