Although a somewhat selfish bird, full of threats and warlike attitudes when a favourite item of food--such as a sunflower head full of seeds--has been discovered, it is sociable to a great extent, even during the breeding season. I have found three or four nests within a yard or two of each other in a hedgerow, and Mr. Hudson says that two or three may sometimes be found even on the same branch. [Illustration: MALE GREENFINCH ON THE ALERT IN A GARDEN IN WINTER.] The nest is situated in hedgerows, gorse bushes, yew, holly, ivy, and other evergreens, in orchards, gardens, shrubberies, and on commons, and when compared with that of the Chaffinch is a rather large and slovenly structure formed of slender, dead twigs, rootlets, grass, and moss lined with hair, down, and feathers. The eggs, numbering from four to six, are white, pale grey, or white tinged with blue, spotted principally round the larger end with reddish-brown and purplish-grey. The male Greenfinch, although not a great feathered vocalist, has some very pleasant notes, which he trills by the half-hour together. In the early part of the breeding season he sings on the wing, but later on he grows less energetic, and is content to deliver his oft-repeated lay from some favourite treetop. Individuals differ in the quality of their notes. In confinement the Greenfinch soon becomes very tame and docile, and is appreciated on this account, and also for its ability to imitate the notes of other species. The call-note is a prolonged _twe-e-er_, and when the nest is visited the members of this species utter a very melancholy one sounding like _tway_. [Illustration: NEST AND EGGS OF GREENFINCH.] In winter Greenfinches congregate in small flocks, and hunt for seeds in stubble fields and farmyards. They will associate with Sparrows, Linnets, and Chaffinches, and during the winter months they come regularly to my garden to take their share of corn, sunflower seeds, and other food which is provided every morning for the consumption of all feathered friends. It is amusing to see one of these birds rolling a grain of Indian corn about between its short, stout mandibles, gradually reducing it to pieces small enough to be swallowed, and cleverly rejecting the thin husk in which it is enfolded, and allowing it to flutter to the ground. [Illustration: farmlands] =THE DARTFORD WARBLER.= [Illustration: sprig with flowers] This bird received its popular name on account of the fact that it was first observed near Dartford in Kent in 1773. It is also known by the very appropriate name of Furze Wren in some parts of the country, because it has a habit of cocking its long tail like a Common Wren and is very partial to thick growths of furze.