84 WOODLAND CREATURES 



previous to the young being hatched, but from 

 his subsequent behaviour I think it is probable 

 he did feed her on the nest. * 



It was after the eggs had hatched that the 

 bullfinches became most interesting. The great 

 event took place on May 23rd, and the next day 

 I took my camera to the tent to try for some 

 more photographs. The little ones were very 

 small and helpless, skinny mites decorated with 

 tufts of black down, like the conventional adorn- 

 ments of a circus clown. Are such tufts of any 

 use, or are they just an accident of evolution ? 

 Watching the tiny mites as they lay in their nest 

 gave me no answer to my query, unless it was 

 the thought that maybe these scanty tufts are 

 a legacy from the primitive bird in which the 

 nest-building impulse was not yet developed, 

 and whose young therefore would almost certainly 

 be well clad, as are the chicks of the waders, game- 

 birds, etc., at the present day. 



No sooner had I got everything arranged inside 

 the "hide" than the hen bullfinch was back, of 

 course escorted as usual by her attentive mate, 

 but having seen her fluff her feathers out, and 

 settle down to brood the family, he flitted off. 

 The reason of his hurry was apparent, when he 

 returned exactly fifteen minutes later, with his 

 throat distended with food, not for the family, 

 but for his wife. She opened her beak and he 

 regurgitated his supply down her throat that is 

 to say, he brought up from his crop the semi- 

 digested food with which it was filled, and gave 



