TASTE OF INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 183 



We once reared a young chaffinch from the nest, and, 

 previous to its first moult, it eagerly devoured flies 

 and other insects ; but afterwards, though it retained 

 the habit of snapping at every fly that came near it, 

 and even of killing them, it always dropped them in 

 the cage, and we never observed it after this period 

 to swallow any insect*. 



44 In the early part of last summer 5 ' (1831), says 

 the Rev. W. Bree, " our attention was attracted by 

 a chaffinch, which, as we sat in our room, we ob- 

 served to pay repeated visits to a broom-bush (Spar- 

 Hum scopariuin) immediately in front of our win- 

 dows. The bird remained a considerable time in the 

 bush at each visit, and appeared exceedingly busy 

 about something, hopping from spray to spray, 

 searching and rumaging among the branches, and 

 evidently using his bill. We suspected that the ob- 

 ject of plunder was the young soft seed of the broom, 

 which at the same time was much in the same state 

 as peas are in when fit to gather. Upon examina- 

 tion, however, we found every pod whole and un- 

 touched ; but the bush was smothered with aphides ; 

 and these, we ascertained, (not the soft seeds, as we 

 had supposed,) were what attracted the chaffinch. 

 Whether the bird devoured the aphides itself when in 

 the bush, or (as we rather suspect) carried them off 

 for the purpose of feeding a young brood, we cannot 

 say ; but an immense number of aphides must have 

 been destroyed during its repeated visits f." It is 

 probable, however, that during winter, the chaffinch 

 is compelled to become omnivorous, and to put up 

 with whatever it can procure. We have thus fre- 

 quently observed numbers of them crowding about 

 compost heaps in the fields where little could be 

 found except the maggots of flies or an occasional 

 beetle ; and it may be in pursuit of similar prey that 

 * J. R. t Mag, Nat. Hist, v, 65, note. 



