■250 CLASS AVES. 



even on fruit-trees in our gardens and orchards. It has been 

 remarked that in woods, this nest is situated very high : 

 while in orchards, its elevation does not exceed the ordinary 

 stature of man ; but she conceals it so well, that it is frequently 

 passed without being perceived. Various white and green 

 mosses, and little roots, are covered on the exterior by a 

 lichen, similar to the branches on which the nest is placed. 

 The interior is furnished with wool, horse-hair, and feathers, 

 connected together with spiders' webs. The female deposits 

 here from four to six eggs, of a reddish grey, sown with 

 blackish spots, more confluent at the thick end. The incu- 

 bation, which the male does not partake, lasts for thirteen 

 days, and the little ones are born covered with down. The 

 father and mother feed them at first with insects and cater- 

 pillars, and then vmite to this aliment the small seeds of plants ; 

 and when they can manage for themselves, they feed on rape- 

 seed, millet, hempseed, corn, &c., the husks of which they 

 can remove with much dexterity, so as to arrive at the farina- 

 ceous substance. 



Those which are destined for the cage, should be taken from 

 the nest ; for when adult, they are with difficulty reconciled 

 to captivity, refusing to eat at first, or perhaps at all, con- 

 tinually striking the bars of the cage with their bills, and 

 frequently suffering themselves to perish. They may be 

 brought up like the canary. As at this age there is no external 

 difference between the sexes, the males may be known, after 

 eating of their own accord for about fifteen days, by their 

 commencing to warble. It is pretended that by giving them 

 a little bread, cheese, or milk, they may be made good 

 singers : but the cheese must not be salted. Others give them 

 meal-worms, and even locusts or grasshoppers. They may be 

 fed also with different seeds ; but hemp-seed, though they 

 are very fond of it, is pernicious to them, as well as to many 



