\ UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES AFIELD 73 



perience, the nest of a young hen bird in the first 

 building. A young hen can be recognized by her 

 trim freshness and the fact that her plumage has 

 not taken on the decided colour of her species that 

 comes after three or four moultings. Her location 

 is not wisely chosen, her nest well shaped nor so 

 compactly built as the work of birds having had 

 experience. Such a bird having built such a nest, 

 invariably produces a first egg very noticeably 

 larger than the others. 



Two other finch experiences are distinct in my 

 memory. While working in the garden one May 

 day, I noticed that somewhere nearby an indigo 

 finch was in a frenzy of the mating song, and 

 presently discovered him on the windowsill of the 

 conservatory, hopping back and forth, his beak 

 against the glass panes, trying to get inside, un- 

 doubtedly attracted by the foliage of a lemon tree, 

 the flowers, and the song of his cousins in the 

 canary house. This bird spent the greater part 

 of one afternoon on the sill, until I was strongly 

 tempted to open a ventilator and allow him to 

 enter, but I could see nothing to be gained there- 

 by, as he would only become alarmed and beat 

 himself against the glass when he found he was 

 confined in strange surroundings. 



Late that evening a hen bird appeared, and the 

 pair built a nest in a honeysuckle directly opposite 

 the conservatory and perhaps thirty feet due west. 

 There was an abundance of leaves and all sorts of 



