NOTES AND QUERIES. 461 



hen sitting, so I foolishly left her alone, the result being that all the young 

 ones died. In August the pair in the bird-room again had a nest, for the 

 safety of which I became somewhat alarmed, when I saw the young birds 

 of the preceding nest following their parents into the box ; but, upon 

 sitting down and examining them attentively with a pair of opera-glasses, 

 I ascertained that they were assisting to feed their younger brethren. 

 This they did regularly until three more left the nest. Of the four young 

 birds in the cage, three died ; and I soon discovered that, when closely con- 

 fined, they quarrel a good deal, plucking one another on the nape and 

 flanks. In the bird-room, though they constantly pursue one another 

 there is no plucking, and the exercise, which is extremely vigorous, seems 

 to do them good. On the death of the third family in the flight-cage, I 

 immediately took out the box, and replaced it by a larger and cleaner one, 

 ramming a quantity of new hay into the bottom, and supplying the birds 

 with feathers, moss, and cow-hair. A fourth lot of youngsters can now be 

 distinctly heard (Sept. '26th), and will probably leave the nest early in 

 October. There seems to be a prevalent notion that Saffron Finches build 

 like Sparrows, but this is quite a mistake ; the nest, though built in an 

 enclosure, is a tolerably neatly formed saucer-shaped structure upon a thick 

 foundation of hay and rubbish. At times the foundation is piled up nearly 

 to the top of the box, leaving only just room for the parents to creep over 

 the top ; at other times it is quite deep down, so that, when feeding, the 

 birds have to jump down into the enclosure. Like all Fringillinm, Saffron 

 Finches feed from the crop, and my young birds have all been reared on a 

 mixture of potato, bread-crumbs, preserved yolk of egg, ants' cocoons, and 

 Abrahams' food, together with canary, millet, and paddy-rice. At first the 

 old birds feed them chiefly on the soft food, but as the nestlings grow, 

 they also eat a good deal of seed, more especially the paddy and canary- 

 seed. Male and female feed alternately, each waiting until the other has 

 emptied its crop before entering the nest. In the bird-room the fledged 

 young torment their parents to feed them for about three weeks, though a* 

 the end of a week they are well able to cater for themselves. As is well 

 known, the eggs are short ovals, more spherical than those of a Sparrow, 

 though somewhat like boldly-marked specimens of the eggs of Passer in 

 character. The hen alone incubates, fourteen days. Number of eggs 

 generally four to five ; in most cases I had four hatched, but only three 

 reared. In captivity Sycalis appears to have no settled breeding season 

 like Serinus, but, if permitted to do so, will rear brood after brood throughout 

 the year; five nests in a year are not unusual. Young Saffron Finches 

 are well able to fly when they leave the nest, and on the second day their 

 flight is tolerably strong, though not sustained ; in a week they are as rapid 

 on the wing as their parents.— A. G. Butler (Beckenham). 



