250



Breeding notes of 1916.



seem to be obvious grounds for including this bird in the genus

Querquedula (Teal). In many ways it constantly reminds one of the

Gadwall. The young were easily reared, and began to feather when

three weeks old. At two months it was evident that they were

a pair. Both birds greatly resembled an adult female, but the male

duckling exceeded the other in size considerably, with a more

conspicuous wing-bar, the whole wing being brighter in colour in

his case, when the wing was spread.


On December 1st a few adult feathers were visible in the

male, down the sides of the throat and chest. A gradual assumption

of the adult plumage went on during the winter, and now, at the

beginning of March, the birds’ smart dress is practically complete,

including the wonderful curved inner secondaries, a few brown

feathers only remaining between the shoulders, and on the belly.


A pair of the charming Bed-headed Bullfinch, described by

our Editor in the Magazine for April, 1915, given to me two years

earlier by our much-lamented fellow member, Major B. Horsbrugh r

bred in a yew bush, making a typical Bullfinch’s nest, and laid

three eggs slightly less round, and more sparingly marked than

those of the European species usually are. Incubation began on

July 21st, and three young were hatched on August 4th (fourteenth

day). One young nestling died, but. the other two had left the

nest on the 21st, and were able to fly a few yards. The parents

■were delightfully confiding, and would fly up and perch on a bundle

of seeding weeds held out to them. The young were partially fed

on ripening seeds of groundsel, shepherds-purse, and dock; but the

parents collected a great deal of small insect food, probably aphis,

and searched foliage and branches diligently, as well as catching

a good deal on the wing, in which performance they showed a good

deal of agility. The young, which turned out to be a pair when

first fledged, showed no colour, yellow or green, and their beaks

■were yellowish, instead of black as in the parents.


By Christmas they had almost assumed the adult plumage,

and now (March) they are indistinguishable from the old birds, so

that I am glad that I separated them in good time."'


* [This is, we believe, the hist time that this species of Bullfinch has successfully

reared young in the British Isles, as is also perhaps the case with the Pink-

browed Rose Finch.—E d.]



