His  nest  is  a  paragon  of  perfection.  He  attaches
lichen  to  the  outside  of  it,  by  means  of  the  spider's
slender  web.  In  the  year  1805,  when  I  was  on  a
plantation  in  Guiana,  I  saw  the  humming  bird  making
use  of  the  spider's  web  in  its  nidification ;  and  then
the  thought  struck  me  that  our  chaffinch  might  pro-
bably make  use  of  it  too.  On  my  return  to  Europe,
I  watched  a  chaffinch  busy  at  its  nest :  it  left  it,  and
flew  to  an  old  wall,  took  a  cobweb  from  it,  then  con-
veyed it  to  its  nest,  and  interwove  it  with  the  lichen
on  the  outside  of  it.  Four  or  five  eggs  are  the


THE   CHAFFINCH.  281

usual  number  which  the  chaffinch's  nest  contains :
and  sometimes  only  three.  The  thorn,  and  most  of
the  evergreen  shrubs,  the  sprouts  on  the  boles  of
forest  trees,  the  woodbine,  the  whin,  the  wild  rose,
and  occasionally  the  bramble,  are  this  bird's  favour-
ite places  for  nidification.  Like  all  its  congeners,  it
never  covers  its  eggs  on  retiring  from  the  nest,  for
its  young  are  hatched  blind.
