V "'i'H:i XX | Bubotold, A Study of th Houm Finch . r >. r > 



i i iu i determinable. The writel u pects thai I he old birds may 

 rcnio ' from the ne i , egg i which have failed to hatch, becau le such 

 have frequently di appeared when the ne il ha • in no way been 

 ill turbed by English Sparrows, which would be the only other 

 cause in explanation of this disappearance. 



The female has •'' peculiar and unmi itakable cry when laying, 

 ,i <;ill which i< answered promptly by her mate. The writer has 

 frequently been led to discover new lei of eggs in a nest through 

 hearing this peculiar 'egg cry' of the laying female The female 

 0,1 <> calls to her n i ;• i « - in ;i different, yet characteristic, way when 

 incubating. She i. then often fed bj the male, the feeding being 

 precisely similar to the feeding of :t young bird, even to the flut- 

 tering of u in).: i, etc. 



The average length of incubation i. fourteen days: occasionally 

 it may be a few hours or even a day shorter, but more frequently 

 ii i longer In one set the first egg laid apparently took fifteen 

 da to hatch, and the fourth egg seventeen days, the other two 

 of this sel being failures, one from infertility, and one dried 

 after being partly developed. 



It i, Bomewhat difficult, in studying the incubation period, to 

 estimate the amount of incubation effected by the laying female. 

 In some sets the first egg ' a ' ( l (,;| " be seen to be partly incubated 

 before the whole set is completed, taking the newly formed red 

 blood channel i which show clearly through the shell in the develop- 

 ing ovum as an index of incubation. This may, and probably 

 does, explain the irregularity which has frequently been noticed 

 in the hatching of " < i of eggs; almost every possible combina- 

 tion of hatching having Keen noted all on the same day, though 

 iln i i not common; two on one day and the remainder at regular 

 inter -il etc., etc. The female, while incubating, 1 1 > • been leen 

 during daylight asleep on the nest. The eggs sometimes under- 

 go a urpri in)/ amount of cooling without being spoiled. One ,<i ( 

 when partly incubated, was successfully hatched after being un- 

 ■ red all of ;i cold rainy night, the female ha ing been frightened 

 from the ne i at about N p m., not returning until daylight. 

 Several lets have been hatched despite the occurrence of several 

 now storms during incubation. An attempt was made, several 

 times, to mark and number each egg a hod, in the cud to determine 



