Breeding of the Hooded Siskin.



53



On Sept. 29th (Sunday) I found the youngster sitting on the

edge of the nest, and later, at 4 p.m. he was squatting on the ground.

The weather was atrocious—floods of rain and a falling glass—so

fearing the chick would perhaps roost outside and be drowned, I did

a somewhat risky thing and caught both him and his mother, caged

them, and left fhe cage in the aviary so that the hen should not miss

her mate. Neither of the birds, however, seemed to mind my inter¬

ference, so on the following day I brought the cage indoors, where

the birds would be protected from the night fog's which we get here

in the autumn. The male seemed none the worse for his enforced

celibacy, but I often heard him calling to the hen, who, I believe,

answered him, though at a distance of quite thirty yards.


On Oct. 1st I saw the chick fed by his mother on several

occasions, and he also picked up and ate sponge cake himself.


The following are my notes of his colour at this date: —

Beak dark horn colour; irides dark brown or black ; forehead, head,

and nape ashy brown ; back and rump rufous brown ; chin, chest

and underparts crimson brown ; primaries dark brown with grey

tips; secondaries similar, but having the outer web an orange brown

colour for a distance of half-an-ineh from their bases. Scapulars

dark-brown tipped with orange-brown ; wing coverts brown, tipped

with light brown ; tail dark brown; feet and legs flesh colour.


On Oct. 3rd the chick was again seen feeding, and on Oct.

4th could crack hard seeds and was flying strongly.


On Oct. 6th I caught up the cock and caged him together

with the hen and young Siskin. He behaved very well, and occa¬

sionally relieved the hen by feeding the youngster. It is interesting

to note that he must have recognised his offspring, from whom he

had been separated for a week and whom he had only seen for an

hour or two after it left the nest, for I feel almost certain that he

never looked into the nest before the chick flew. At the age of five

weeks the sex of the young bird was evident and I was disappointed

to find that it was a male — first the feathers on the chin and a few

days latter those on the forehead and occiput began to assume an

ashy-black colour. On October 25th I heard him attempting to sing,

the “ song ” resembled the sound made by rubbing a wet bottle with



