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birds with fresh asparagus grass, they make a wonder- 

 fully clever nest almost entirely out of the long soft 

 strips this plant provides. All breeders of this bird, 

 and particularly Doctors Rey and Baldamus, have 

 referred to the artistic neatness of its nest, which the 

 first-named likens to that of a Willow- Wren. 



The Firefinch so readily takes to a new nest, that 

 one can usually easily induce them to start nesting by 

 arranging a well-cleaned Sparrow's or other bird's 

 nest in a basket or Hartz cage, and to this they will 

 keep adding feathers, etc., as is also the habit of 

 some of the other small Ploceidcs, while the hen is 

 sitting, and especially after the young are hatched. 



The laying varies between three and seven eggs, 

 the usual number being four. The nest-down of the 

 young is brownish white ; the gape-angle is white and 

 the roof of the mouth blue. 



In their first feather the young are above brownish 

 tawny-grey, below light brownish-grey, and there is 

 only a little pale dirty red on the rump extending as 

 far as the middle of the tail and the outer halves of 

 the feathers beyond, markings which are absolutely 

 diagnostic of the species. The bill is glossy black, 

 the eye dark with no yellow rim and there are no spots 

 on the sides. The red of the adult begins to appear 

 from the third to the fifth week, and is often complete 

 by the end of the sixth, though frequently it is months 

 before the full colour is attained ; the time taken 

 depending both on the food supply and the atmos- 

 pheric conditions, especially on the temperature ; the 

 higher this is kept, the more quickly and better- 

 coloured do the young become. From a single red 

 feather here and there on the forehead, neck or breast, 

 the colour should rapidly spread over the whole body, 

 the beak becoming almost wholly red at the same 

 time. This, of course, refers only to the cocks, but 



