Officers for the Year. 341


coarse steins and the inside of fine blades. Three eggs were

laid, and so far as I could see (I could not get within some three

feet of the nest) closely resembled those of a Linnet. On July 4th

I saw the hen very busily collecting aphis from the underside of

some hop leaves, and I could make out one or two newly hatched

chicks in the nest. After the first few days grass seeds seemed

to be preferred to any other food. I supplied flowering grass

daity and the parent Yellowish Finches were on to it immediately

it was thrown into the aviary. A pair of Olive Finches which

had a hungry brood near by, which they too seemed to feed

almost entirely upon grass-seed, had constant battles with the

Yellowish Finches, in fact the little cock Phonipara lepida is not

in the least afraid to charge a bird several times his own size,

but the Yellowish Finches generally managed to hold their own.


On July nth one young bird, not unlike a young Yellow-

hammer, left the nest, but took care to keep in the midst of the

thickest cover it could find. I rarely saw it, and the old birds

would never go to feed it if they knew that a human being was

within sight.


A few days after it left the nest, I made a note that it was

similar to its mother in colour except that its throat was whiter

and the chest was spotted with brown. As I write (August 10)

it is as large as its parents and almost as bright in colour as the

adult male, which would seem to show that the sex can be

distinguished at an early period. The hen has repaired the

old nest and is sitting again. D. Seth-Smith.



OFFICERS FOR THE YEAR 1906-7.



The Council recommend, in accordance with Rule 9, that

Mr. J. L- Bonhote and Mr. W. T. Page retire from the Council,

and that Mr. A. Trevor-Battye and Mr. W. H. St. Quintiu be

elected in their stead ; and in order to increase the number

of the Council to 15 in conformity with the Rules as amended in

1905, that the following additional three members be elected on

the Council: Mrs. E. J. Johnstone, Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant and



