130 THE CHAFFINCH. 



T^ooD. — When '.vild, their food in spring is all sorts of insects, which they 

 carry to their young in their beaks ; later in the season they eat Tarious 

 kinds of seeds, pine and fir seeds, when they inhabit forests that contain 

 them, linseed, oats, rape, cabbage, and lettuce, which they know well how 

 to procure and shell. 



In the house they are fed all the year on rape seed, dried in summer, or, 

 which is better, soaked and swelled in water, on which food they apjpear to 

 thrive. Every day a sufficient quantity should be soaked for the next, and 

 given them fresh every morning. In the spring they are allowed a little 

 hemp-seed, or the seed of the nettle-hemp (Galeopsis Tetrahit), to 

 excite their song, and this plant is therefore very much prized in Thuringia ; 

 but these seeds should not be mixed with the rape, as in trying to find 

 them they soon scatter their food ; it is best to put it in a separate drawer 

 fastened to the iron wires of the cage, between which it may be slipped. It 

 must not be omitted to supply them with gieen vegetables, chickweed, 

 lettuce, and the like ; and in wmtcr a piece of apple, meal-worms, and ants' 

 eggs agree with them. Tliey must have fresh water regularly every day, 

 both to drink and bathe in. 



Those that range the room live on tlie different sorts of food they meet 

 with, bread, meat, and all sorts of seeds. 



Breeding. — The nest of the chaflSnch is one of the most beautiful of 

 birds' nests, and formed in the most skilful manner. It is the shape of a 

 lialf globe flattened on the upper part, and so perfectly rounded that it has 

 the appearance of having been turned on a lathe. Cobwebs * and wool 

 fasten it to the branch, bits of moss with small twigs entwined form the 

 ground-work ; the lining is composed of feathers, thistle-down, the hair of 

 horses and other animals, whilst the outer covering is formed of the dif- 

 ferent lichens that grow on the tree in which it is placed, the whole firmly 

 united and well cemented. This outer finish is no doubt intended to 

 deceive an enemy's eye ; in fact, it is very difiScult, even with great atten- 

 tion, to distinguish the nest from the bark of the branch on which it is 

 fixed. 



The female has two broods in the year ; she lays from three to five eggs, 

 of a pale bluish grey, spotted and streaked witli brown : the first brood 

 and this is confirmed in general by observations oh other birds) rarely 

 produces any but males, the second only females. Bird-fanciers can dis- 

 tinguish the one from the other before they leave the nest; the breast of 

 the mule already discovering a reddish tint, the circle round the eyes being 

 yellower, the wings blacker, and the lines that cross them whiter, though 

 in other respects it resembles its mother. If you Avish to be quite sure, 

 l»luck some feathers from the breast of the bird you have taken from the 

 nest, in a fortnight they will he replaced, and the presence or absence of 

 red will infallibly decide whether it is male or female. As soon as the tail- 

 feathers begin to appear they must be taken from the nest, to prevent the 

 possibility of their ear being injured by hearing an imperfect song, for 

 ccracely are the wings and tail half grown than these birds begin to warble, 

 and to imitate the song of those around them. 



They miist be fed on rape seed soaked in water and the crumb of whito 



• See " Architecture of Birds." page 265. 



