64 Birds I Have Kept. 



beauty of its coat, which is apt to grow dingy and brown in 

 the house. 



The Yellow-hammer bathes freely, and should be afforded 

 the opportunity of doing so every day. 



This bird generally has three broods in the year, laying 

 each time from three to five eggs of a dirty white colour, 

 marked with brown spots and zigzag lines resembling not a 

 little the angular handwriting lately so fashionable with ladies. 

 I have found the nest, with eggs in it, as late as the middle 

 of September, and as early as the first week in March, when 

 I lived in Brittany. 



The young are by no means difficult to rear on bread and 

 milk, or blenoir, and ants' eggs, lean meat scraped, and hard- 

 boiled yolk of egg. "When thus brought up from the nest, 

 the young Yellow-hammers will learn to partially imitate the 

 songs of other birds, especially that of the Chaffinch. 



Attempts have been made to pair these birds with Canaries, 

 but without success, so far as I am aware; with the American 

 Buntings, however, the Blue Bunting or Indigo Finch, and 

 the Painted Bunting or Nonpareil, the union ought not to be 

 so difficult, seeing the near relationship that exists between 

 all these birds, but it is not within my knowledge that the 

 experiment has been tried. Mules, however, have been obtained 

 between the Yellow-hammer and the Bramble Finch, which 

 are said to have proved fertile i?iier se : a statement, by the 

 way, in which I do not place much credence, and merely 

 give the story here for what it is worth, for it is a well 

 ascertained fact in !N'atural History that hybrids are incapable 

 of reproducing their kind, and the stories to the contrary, 

 which from time to time have found their way into print, 

 are altogether unsupported by evidence of any reliable kind, 

 the narrators reporting them on hearsay only. 



Decline, or consumption, is the usual end of these birds in 

 the house, whether reared from the nest, or captured when 

 adult, and is caused by an insufficiently nutritious diet. The 



