BULLFINCH. 27 



The eggs, four or five in number, are pale blue, 

 speckled and streaked with purple grey, and dark 

 purple. They are hatched towards the end of May, 

 after an incubation of fifteen days. The male takes 

 his turn in sitting with the female. The latter sits 

 very closely, though she is in general easily frightened 

 away. The male is less so, but it is said that if he 

 be disturbed the nest is almost always deserted, which 

 is not the case when the female is alarmed. William 

 Henry Rudston Read, Esq., of Hayton and York, has 

 recorded in the 'Naturalist,' old series, that, when 

 resident at Frickley Hall, near Doncaster, a hen bird 

 which built in a laurel near the house suffered herself 

 to be touched while sitting on her young ones, and 

 would feed from the hand without the least fear. The 

 birds are supposed to pair for life; the members of 

 the family keep together until the spring. 



One is of a pale bluish green, marked with a few 

 very small and one or two large brown spots. 



A second is grounded with pale bluish green, 

 thickly marked with large and small spots about the 

 larger end. 



A third is of a pale bluish green grey, speckled 

 with a few brown spots. 



