THE CHAFFINCH. 



235 



bathing and drinking every day. Those which are allowed to 

 range the room, are content with the common food of the aviary ; 

 and eat bread-crumbs, meat, oats, millet, as well as linseed 

 and rape seed. And for such, it is not necessary to soak the 

 latter. 



Breeding. The Chaffinch's 

 nest, which is built upon the 

 branch of a tree, is constructed 

 with great ingenuity. Its upper 

 part is formed like a compressed 

 sphere, as round as if it had been 

 turned, and fastened to the bough 

 by cobwebs and hair. It is com- 

 posed of moss and small twigs, 

 lined on the inside with feathers, 

 thistle-down, and hair ; and cover- 

 ed outwardly with the lichens of 

 the tree on which it stands. The 

 reason of this last-mentioned pre- 

 caution is probably to elude hostile 

 observations ; at all events, it is 

 very difficult to distinguish the 

 Chaffinch's nest from the trunk of the tree to which it is 

 attached. The female hatches two broods every year, laying 

 each time four or five light bluish grey eggs, covered with 

 copper-coloured spots and stripes. The first brood, as indeed 

 is the case with all birds which breed twice a year, consists 

 almost exclusively of males; the second as exclusively of 

 females. Connoisseurs are able to distinguish the sexes at 

 a very early period ; as in the males, even when very 

 young, there is a tinge of red on the sides of the breast ; the 

 circle of the eyes is yellower, the wings blacker, and the 

 stripes on them whiter, than in the females ; though in other 

 respects they resemble the mother. In order to be sure that 

 they have not already acquired an imperfect song, they should 

 be taken from the nest as soon as the tail feathers have begun 

 to grow ; for shortly after this period, they begin to imitate 

 the song of their father, or of some bird in the neighbourhood 

 of their nest. They may be fed on bread crumbs, and soaked 

 rape seed; and are easily kept in health till the moulting 

 season, when great numbers die. At this period, a diet of 



