42 BIRDS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 



ornamented with a crest, which the bird can raise and 

 depress at pleasure. 



The female is smaller, greyish brown above, and greyish 

 white on the under parts. 



The bill of the male is blue in summer, when that of the 

 female is greyish brown ; but both turn to horn-colour in 

 the winter. 



The young are like their mother until after the first 

 moult, and are easily brought up from the nest on bread 

 and milk, and a few ants' eggs, small meal worms, or other 

 insects. 



When wild, these birds feed about equally on seeds and 

 insects, and are wrongfully accused of destroying buds in 

 their eager search for the latter ; that they knock some off- 

 is probable, but the damage done is inappreciable, for those 

 that remain are all the stronger for the thinning out, and 

 more likely to come to maturitj'. 



The nest of the chaffinch is the most beautiful of those 

 built by British birds. It is variously placed, sometimes 

 in a fruit tree, but generally where there are a good many 

 lichens about, with which the outside of the nest is thickly 

 covered, so that it is difficult to see, especially when placed 

 against a wall on an espalier, or against the trunk of a 

 gnarled apple tree. The eggs are about five in number, of a 

 pale bluish grey, streaked and splashed with purplish brown. 



There are two broods each season, the first of which con- 

 sists, for the most part, of males, and the second of females. 

 They are easily reared from the nest, and will tiien breed 

 freely in cage and aviary. 



It has long been a subject of contention whether the 

 chaffinch will, or will not, pair and produce mules with the 

 canar^', and after protracted experimentation with them, 

 the writer is enabled to say that it is not at all uncommon 

 for the union to take place, but the eggs (whether of 



