HAWFINCHES.
(To THE Eprroa, or THE " SPECTA101."3
Sta,—Knowing the keen interest you take in nature notes I venture: to send you the following: This morning on a large lawn in front of the dining-room window three magnificent male specimens of the hemfinch (or grosbeak) were busy feed- ing. We watched them for quite twenty minutes, using a powerful field-glass- to make quite sure of identification. On this lawn stand an. oak, a maple, and a plane, and the three hawfinclies, in company with a blackbird, a starling, and a chaffmth, appeared to find plenty to eat. This bird is spoken- of by Saunders, Bewick and Buffon as being "shy and solitary " and "comparatively rare." Surely three male birds- in com- pany so early in the year is somewhat unusual. We had a pair in. this. garden some years ago who raised a fine family, but upon our felling some hornbeams, upon the seeds of which they used to feed, the birds gradually disappeared. We boast many interesting birds here—nuthatches, four species of tits, owls, tree-creepers, &c., and some years ago a pair of king-
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