28 8EBIN FINGE. 



duty is performed entirely by the female, while the male often feeds 

 her most tenderly from his crop. 



Salvadori (Fauna d' Italia) writes of this bird: — " Fringilla serina 

 makes its nest upon trees a short distance from the ground. The nest 

 is constructed externally of dry sticks, and soft roots and wool internally. 

 The eggs, in number from four to five, are whitish, with brown and 

 rosy spots on the obtuse end." 



The late lamented Mr. Edward Tuck, of Wallington Rectory, near 

 Baldock, Hertfordshire, who took a great interest in the progress of 

 my work, wrote to me an account of his observations of this bird in 

 the south of France, and promised to send me the nest and eggs. 

 The fatal disease, however, which took him to the sunny climate of 

 the south of France, has since then terminated fatally; and it is with 

 a melancholy interest I record an extract from one of his letters, which 

 displayed not only considerable knowledge of natural history, but 

 powers of observation, which would, had he been spared, have done 

 much good to the science in the pursuit of which he was so fond. 

 The letter is dated June 15th., 1859: — 



*' I have lately returned from Cannes, where I passed several months 

 of the winter; but I am sorry to say have met with very little 

 indeed in the ornithological way. . . .Provence is generally a very dry 

 and barren country, and you only find birds in the valleys, on the 

 borders of streams. With regard, however, to the Serin Finch, F. 

 serinus, I found that some wintered in Provence. I heard the song 

 two or three times in December, and obtained a specimen in January. 

 They begin to sing again about the middle of February. By the middle 

 of March their numbers had greatly increased by arrivals, and they 

 were extremely abundant all along the edges of the pine woods, with 

 which all the higher ground of the country is covered. They evidently 

 frequented the borders of cultivated ground more than the interior of 

 the wood. The males were then in full song. From the middle of 

 March the numbers gradually lessened till there were only some pairs 

 left here and there breeding, 



"They build chiefly in gardens, more so than in pine woods. The 

 nest is always on a pine or cedar, from six to sixteen feet from the 

 ground. On the 14th. of April I saw some young Serins out of the 

 nest, but they could not fly; and on the 26th. I took a nest containing 

 only two fresh eggs. On my way home, I stayed some days at Fon- 

 tainebleau. I certainly did not hear these birds there, though the 

 gardens round the palace seemed suitable for them, and I was shewn 

 the skin of one said to have been obtained there. The Serin Finch 

 is not found in Madeira. I have seen it at Cintra, near Lisbon, in 

 June, but they are never numerous there then." 



