1 60 Bird-keeping. 



bird on that account, it becomes so exceedingly tame. 

 It is a great eater, and apt to take exclusive posses- 

 sion of the seed-box in an aviary, and to drive all the 

 other birds away from it with its great beak. I had 

 four young Greenfinches, reared from the nest on 

 moistened bread and scalded rape-seed, and they used 

 to come out of their cage and fly upon my hand for 

 their food, and were very pleasant pets. As soon as 

 they were full grown, I opened their cage door, and 

 they flew into the garden ; but they returned to their 

 cage for food, and came back every night throughout 

 the summer to roost in it. In their wild state they 

 feed on all kinds of seeds, but their nestlings are 

 generally supplied with caterpillars and other insects. 

 In a cage they should be fed on canary and bird- 

 turnip, with a little hemp-seed occasionally, and have 

 lettuce, chickweed, and cabbage, and juniper-berries 

 from time to time. 



The HAWFINCH (Coccothraustes vulgaris) is a much 

 larger bird than the Greenfinch, and is much less com- 

 monly seen, as it is a peculiarly shy and wild bird, and 

 lives chiefly in the recesses of forests, feeding on haws 

 and various other berries and the kernels of stone- 

 fruit, cracking the shell with ease with its powerful 

 beak. Epping Forest appears to be one of its chief 

 haunts in England. It is not often kept in confine- 

 ment in this country, but on the Continent is esteemed 

 as a cage bird, on account of its great tameness when 



