64 The Serin 



fourth geiieratiou (Vide Gefiederte Welt, Vol. XX, p. 289) is not very surprising: 

 the only question is whether the Doctor was justified in speaking of them as 

 "Bastarde." Air. H. C. Martin, of Old Charlton, bred three crosses between the 

 Serin and Canary in 1896, and kindly gave a female to me, so that I hojDed to be 

 able to repeat Dr. Russ' experience but was unsuccessful. 



Mr. Septimus Perkins in the " Avicultural Magazine," Vol. II, pp. 152-3, 

 gives his experience of the Serin iu captivity; he sa3's : — "The Serin Finch is 

 not expensive to bu}^ but is uot always to be obtained when wanted. A good 

 man}', however, are generally brought over from Germany in the autumn, and it 

 is then that the war}- aviculturist will purchase a pair or two, with which he may- 

 hope to breed the following year. 



Canar\' and German rape-seed, with the dail}' addition of a little hemp, suit 

 the Serin Finch best as a diet. I have al\va3's found him most inoffensive towards 

 his companions in the aviary, a tame, confiding little bird, and, to m}' mind, 

 singularly attractive, iu spite of his sober colours. 



My pair of vSerins were bought in the autumn, when they were in very 

 shabby plumage and not the best of health. In due time they improved greatly 

 in both respects, but became, unfortunately, a great deal too fat. In Ma}' of the 

 following year the hen began to build, selectiug a corner of the aviary, on the 

 floor of the room, as a nesting place ; although the aviary abounded with more 

 suitable spots, there being nesting boxes of various sorts and abundance of bushes. 

 The nest was a neatly formed but flimsy edifice, rather hastily put together, and 

 the three pretty eggs rolled out, one by one, upon the floor a day or two after 

 the hen began to sit. She stuck to her nest so long as an egg remained in it; 

 but when the last rolled out, she gave up in despair. No other nest was built." 



I do not doubt that if a Hartz cage had been hanging on the wall, the Serin 

 would have built inside it, and reared her brood : the common Canary in an 

 aviary prefers this to anything else, and when it is not present, builds iu a bush 

 or a bundle of twigs. 



Ornithologists have long differed in opinion as to whether the specimens of 

 the wild Canary which have from time to time been caught and killed on our 

 coasts are stragglers to Great Britain or escaped cage-birds ; Seebohm insisted 

 that they were the former, because they showed no evidence of having been in 

 captivity, although the same might be said of most birds which have been care- 

 fully attended to in spacious aviaries. Howard Saunders did not hesitate to regard 

 them as freed captives, observing that "although cages-full are known to be 

 imported, there are persons who wish to believe that the individuals captured are 

 not escaped birds, but stragglers from a warm to an inhospitable climate." Here 



