142 FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 

 BIRDS. 



Passer domesticus, The Common Sparrow. 



1 June at Poole, Mr. J. T. Curtis saw two common sparrows 

 trying to catch a small geometer (probably Melanippe 

 ilucluata), but as both birds went for it at once, neither got it. 

 (W.P.C.) 

 Fringilla ccelebs, The Chaffinch. 



9 May at Canford. This bird was sitting in a very accessible 

 situation in an old dead turze hedge, so we decided to observe 

 her closely 



15 May. She had hatched off. 



16 May. E.H.C. started work at this nest 1.10 and noted 

 as follows . 



1.15 male fed young on what looked like small tortrix larvae. 



1 .25 male came to nest again with a beak and throat full 

 of small larvae, some of which 1 recognised as geometers. 

 All the larvae were dead. The food was in every instance 

 the same, and 6 or 7 seemed to be the number of larvae 

 brought each time. They were almost all of them green or 

 pale yellow ; I saw no brown larvae at all. The pa.rent put 

 the food right down the throat of the \oung, of which there 

 were five, and 1 found tho young were unable to swallow r a 

 small dead larva put into their mouth. They were little 

 yellowish '' hairy '' nestlings, with mouths of crimson Avith 

 pale yellow edges to their beaks. The male wos extremely 

 quick in feeding the young, and no sooner had he finished 

 than he bolted. The female behaved in a most silly manner 

 throughout, fluttering in a very nervous way up and down 

 beside the tent, and in and out round the nest. She came 

 to the nest several times with food in her beak, entering the 

 nest trom behind, and immediately bolted straight out of 

 the front. 



1.35 male fed young. 



1.45 female bolted out of the nest, back to front. 



1.50 female came to ihe nest with food and bolted out 

 without feeding. 



