106 FRINGILLID^. 



the song of the cock, begun rather late in spring, and pro- 

 longed beyond midsummer, has that in it which harmonizes 

 with the sultry season when it is most often heard, for the 

 full vernal chorus of the grove overpowers the droning trill 

 that afterwards becomes an acceptable though monotonous 

 strain. This, however, he is not soon tired of uttering, and 

 perched in a tree-top will reiterate it almost without variation, 

 for half an hour together. At times indeed, he will launch 

 forth into the air, and, after beating about vaguely for some 

 space, will, with outstretched wings and tail, soar in a semi- 

 circle to another like station, singing the while ; but such a 

 feat is chiefly if not solely performed in the early days of 

 courtship, and as the summer draws on, he seldom indulges 

 in this graceful flight, but as rather becomes his portly figure 

 remains stolidly seated while he trolls his lay. In confine- 

 ment, the Greenfinch imitates the song of any fellow-captives, 

 and without many qualities to recommend it as a cage-bird, 

 soon becomes tame and reconciled to its prison. 



I have been favoured by a lady with an interesting account 

 of a young bird of this species which flew on her shoulder 

 whilst walking, and became in a few days very familiar, not to 

 say, afi'ectionate and playful. It lived for about five months 

 in a state of semi-voluntary captivity, but on the return of 

 its mistress from an absence abroad, it appeared to have for- 

 gotten her, though it had before displayed unequivocal marks 

 of attachment to her, and seems then to have met the sad 

 fate that in one form or another is the usual lot of all pets 

 on the first temporary and even unintentional discontinuance 

 of special care for their safety. 



It is rather a late breeder ; not beginning to build till 

 towards the end of April or early in May. The nest is placed in 

 low bushes or hedges, and sometimes in trees, and composed 

 on the outside, of coarse fibrous roots, interwoven with wool 

 and green moss, and is lined with finer roots, horsehair and 

 a few feathers but for that of a Finch the structure wants 

 neatness, if it may not be called clumsy. The eggs are from 

 four to six in number, white or pale french-white, blotched, 

 spotted and speckled chiefly near the larger end with dark 



