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On the breeding of the Chinese greenfinch.



Their call note, when excited or alarmed, is more like that of

the chaffinch than that of any other English bird. I have never

heard them attempt to sing.


In the summer of 1914 all three birds were kept together in

an outdoor aviary, but no attempt whatever was made at breeding.

This spring a pair were turned into the same aviary and the odd

cock into an adjacent one with a hen goldfinch. At the end of May

I noticed the cock greenfinch chasing the hen, and on June 4th I

found that she had torn the top out of a rufous-necked weaver’s nest

and built herself a cup-shaped structure within. Five greenish-white

eggs were laid. These were slightly marked at the larger end, and

were, in fact, facsimiles of the eggs of our brown linnet. Things

went very well for a few days, when one morning I found the poor

cock greenfinch in a woeful state. One leg was damaged and a large

patch of skin and feathers was torn off his breast. He looked very

much as if he was going to pass in his checks, and my hopes of

breeding Chloris sinica fell to zero. However, the next day he was

better and he continued to improve from day to day. In the mean¬

time the hen sat steadily, and I still had hopes of at least seeing

young ones, even if she were unable to rear them unassisted, but on

going into the aviary on June 8th I found the nest and eggs on the

ground. I think that the cock weaver must have been the culprit.

There was certainly some excuse for his display of temper on this

occasion, as I have no doubt that he had hoped to persuade one

of the hen weavers to start house-keeping duties in this nest.


On the 12th of the month I saw the hen finch again building,

this time in a laurel. A neat cup-shaped nest was built entirely of

grey and white goat-hair ; this was lined with a few feathers and

two eggs were laid. Incubation commenced on June 15th, and three

days later, on examining the eggs, I found that they were fertile.

The hen alone did the incubating, and, on looking into the nest the

last day of the month, I found that two young were just hatched.

They were covered with white down and were queer little objects.

As the nest was within a foot of the entrance door and quite low

down I had every opportunity of watching their growth, as the hen

Hew off every time 1 entered.


On the 7th, feathers began to appear, and, on the 8th, their



