The Chaffinch ioi 



other times it lives chiefl}' upou various kinds of seeds of weeds, and of grain. In 

 confinement it may be kept for 3'ears in health without insect food, but nevertheless 

 a few caterpillars, mealworms, cockroaches, or spiders certaiul}^ are good for it. 



I think it was about the year 1887 that I took and hand-reared a nest of four 

 young Chaffinches, which eventually proved to be two pairs : the nestlings are not 

 eas}^ to feed, as the}^ always back away from the food, wagging their heads violently 

 from side to side, so that it requires patience and dexterity to pop it into their 

 wide-gaping mouths. My two male birds came into magnificent colour, and sang 

 extremely well, probably learning their song from a ChafSnch which still lived in 

 one of my aviaries up to 1897, though it must now be quite fifteen years of age. 

 This old fellow was a fine Essex bird when I bought him, and a very good singer; 

 and, although he had been unable to fly for two or three years, and his white 

 eye-lashes showed his advanced age, he still sang strongly in the spring : but his 

 chief interest to me lay in the fact that he once took a Canary to wife. 



In the spring of 1886 the veteran above-mentioned was flying about with 

 other Finches in a small aviary, and one of my hen Norwich Canaries took a 

 violent fancy to him, following him about everywhere : at first he did not seem 

 to reciprocate this feeling, but eventually he began to feed her from the crop. 

 When I noticed this, I placed the two apart in a large flight-cage where they soon 

 paired. The Canary then built and commenced to lay, but I only found the shell 

 of the first egg (which was so exactly marked like that of a Chaffinch that it 

 would have deceived anj^one). 



Although I found the Finch feeding his wife as she sat in her nest, I felt 

 certain that he must have destroyed her first egg ; therefore, I promptly removed 

 him to another cage. After this the Canary/ laid three other eggs, all more or 

 less marked like the first, and sat steadily upon them for three weeks ; when, 

 knowing that there was no chance of their hatching, I took them away and found 

 that they were all clear.* 



The idea prevalent in the minds of many naturalists, that the Chaffinch differs 

 from other Fringillida: in not feeding its hen and young from the crop, is probably 

 based upon the fact that it begins to give its nestlings solid food before they leave 

 the nest. This is certainly the case with some, if not all, members of the Sub- 

 family Emberizince. 



* A frieud of mine was extremely iudignant because I quoted Howard Sauuders' suggestion that the green 

 eggs sometimes laid by Blackbirds may have been the result of a cross between Blackbird and Song- Thrush. 

 He said it was absurd to suppose that the male in any way influenced the colouring of an egg. Is it? I don't 

 know; but I do know that the Canary paired with a Chaffinch laid eggs which could have been mistaken for 

 those of the latter bird, and yet they were not fertile: possibly the colouring of the shell may be the first thing 

 affected ; we absolutely know nothing about the causes of the colours and markings of eggs, and, therefore, 

 have no right to be dogmatic. — A.G.B. 



Vol. II. D2 



