100 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



addition of insects during the summer months, 

 which would rather bear out the assertion of Yarrell 

 that the young are for a time fed upon insects ; but it 

 seems that this is not the case, as, although the old 

 birds may eat insects during the summer months, 

 it has been shown by dissection of the young that 

 they are fed entirely on unripe or sprouting seeds of 

 weeds and garden-plants.* 



In confinement the Greenfinch is easily tamed, and 

 eats anything in the way of grain or seeds : the pips 

 of apples I have also found a very favourite food, 

 but I do not think it cares much for the other part 

 of the apple, but if it be cut open will eagerly pick 

 out and eat the pips. It breeds readily in con- 

 finement, and increases rather too quickly for an 

 ordinary aviary. 



The nest is usually placed in thickish shrubs and 

 bushes or hedgerows, and sometimes tolerably high 

 up on trees. In confinement I generally find it 

 places its nest in some furze-bushes which I contrive 

 to stick up in the roof of the aviary. In a wild state 

 the nest is made of roots, small sticks and bits of 

 moss, and lined with hair and feathers ; in confine- 

 ment it makes use of hay and bents of grass in 

 fact, of anything suitable with which it may be 

 supplied. 



The adult male Greenfinch is a bright, handsome 



* 'Zoologist' for 1866 (Second Series, p. 481). 



