62 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
of a nest of four. This year, acting on the experience I had gained, 
I placed a Chaffinch’s nest—for which kind they had a decided preference— 
in an open wire uest-basket, such as are made for Canaries to build in, and 
which hook on to the wires of the cage. This is a matter of some importance, 
as the birds seem to take great delight in trimming and beautifying the 
outside of their nest—a fancy they could not indulge if they had to build in 
a box or close basket. Having relined this nest with portions of others, 
and made it fit, the hen commenced laying a batch of five eggs on the 15th 
May, one being laid every day, but she began to sit as soon as the third 
egg was laid. 1 may here observe that as soon as the hen has seriously 
determined to build she continually utters a low plaintive note, heard at no 
other time of year, and then, and not till then, does she set to work in 
earnest. The cock takes no part in the construction of the’ nest, but is 
very attentive to his mate whilst she is sitting on her eggs, frequently 
bringing her food, which she receives, fluttering her wings and uttering the 
breeding notes. When the eggs were about to hatch I kept in the cage a 
plentiful supply of watercress and groundsel in jars of water, hard-boiled 
egg, sprays of millet (which had been frequently soaked in water for twenty- 
four hours), and gentles; these latter I obtained from Mr. Williams, of 
10, Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s-Inn Fields, where they can be purchased 
all the year round as bait for the use of anglers. Ou the morning of the 
29th May three eggs were hatched, another on the following morning, and 
the fifth later on the same day. During the first eight or ten days the 
young ones were fed entirely on gentles, those in the pupa or chrysalis 
state being preferred; the other food was then gradually mixed with the 
gentles, which were used less and less, and were entirely discarded by the 
time the young ones were three weeks old. ‘The food is first swallowed by 
the parent, and then ejected into the mouth of the young ones. I observed 
that a few grains of sand were generally taken with the food that was about 
to be given to the young ones. ‘The young are born without any hair or 
down on them. ‘They grow rapidly; their eyes are open on the sixth day ; 
the stumps of the feathers begin to appear on the seventh or eighth, and 
they leave the nest fully feathered when they are fifteen days old, and a few 
days later are able to feed themselves. Care must be taken not to let them 
have any hard seed till they are about six weeks old; the soaked seed may 
then be gradually withdrawn and replaced with ordinary seed. When my 
young birds were seven days old, the cock—who till then had never fed 
them—commenced taking charge of them, and the hen began to evince a 
desire to nest again, pulling pieces out of the nest in which her young were, 
wherewith to build a new one. I therefore supplied her with another, in 
which, after due alterations, she laid five eggs. These, however, did not 
hatch, the first being laid on the 10th June and the last on the 15th—that 
is, in six days. The three young ones which were hatched first were strong, 
