THE CHAFFINCH. 95 



The nest takes from five days to a fortnight to construct, all depending upon 

 whether the bird is ready to lay. In form it is a small neat cup, slightly con- 

 tracted at the top, and tolerably deep ; but curiously enough Seebohm quotes a 

 note by a Mr. C. Doncaster on a very aberrant nest seen by him on a thorn tree 

 by the river Derwent, which appears to have been like that made by an English 

 Chaffinch sent to New Zealand, and which has been figured by Dixon as evidence 

 that birds do not inherit the design upon which they construct their nests. This 

 year (1896) I again turned a Canary loose in an aviary, and had the pleasure of 

 seeing her prove the fallacy of Dixon's belief, by building a cup-shaped nest in a 

 bunch of fir-twigs, her only pattern being set by a Canary on the opposite side 

 of the aviary sitting in the usual square box. 



The materials of the nest, as already stated, vary a good deal ; the normal type 

 being firmly felted together and formed of moss, a few lichens and spiders' cocoons, 

 and lined with rootlets and hair, intermingled, or covered, with a layer of thistle- 

 down ; but one of my nests has a rather rough aspect, being constructed of roots 

 and fibre, mingled with fine worsted, and with hardly any moss or lichen in the 

 outer walls, but with the usual lining ; others have feathers mixed with the usual 

 materials in the lining. The eggs, four to six in number, are, as a rule, either 

 greenish, or rosy flesh-coloured, the markings consisting of diffused sienna or ruddy 

 brownish patches and streaks, some of which enclose blots, commas, dots, streaks, 

 or hair-lines of blackish-brown ; in some eggs the reddish markings are chiefly 

 massed over the larger end ; in others the darker markings form a subterminal 

 zone, whilst in rare instances they are wholly absent, the eggs being bluish, slightly 

 clouded with reddish : the rarest type, of which I have only taken two clutches, is 

 exactly like some eggs of the Bullfinch, clear blue, with grey shell-spots, purplish 

 patches, and almost black surface spots. The Chaffinch certainly frequently rears 

 three broods in a year ; nidification lasting from April sometimes to August. 



The natural food of the Chaffinch in summer, as already stated, consists largely 

 of insects, their larvae, spiders, and the soft foliage and unripe seeds of weeds ; but 

 at other times it lives chiefly upon various kinds of seeds of weeds, and of grain. 

 In confinement it may be kept for years in health without insect food, but never- 

 theless a few caterpillars, mealworms, cockroaches, or spiders certainly are good 

 for it. 



I think it was about the year 1887 that I took and hand-reared a nest of four 

 young Chaffinches, which eventually proved to be two pairs : the nestlings are not 

 easy to feed, as they always back away from the food, wagging their heads violently 

 from side to side, so that it requires patience and dexterity to pop it into their 

 wide-gaping mouths. My two male birds came into magnificent colour, and sang 



