CHIFF-CHAFF. 



supply is greatly diminished ; and as it has been 

 known to eat small seeds in confinement, it probably 

 also does so naturally in the latter part of the 

 season.* 



Mr. Sweet says it is readily taken in a trap 

 baited with small caterpillars, or a rose branch 

 covered with aphides. They soon get familiar in 

 confinement. When first caught, they should, if 

 possible, be put with other birds ; and they will 

 readily take to feed on bruised hemp-seed and 

 bread,f and on bread and milk, which must at 

 first be stuck full of small insects, or a quantity 

 of aphides may be shaken off a branch upon it : 

 when they have once tasted it, they will be very 

 fond of it. J 



The nest is oval, with a small hole near the top, 

 composed externally of dry leaves, and then coarse 

 dry grass, and lined with feathers, and is generally 

 placed on or near the ground, frequently on a ditch, 

 in a tuft of grass, or low bush. The eggs are six 



* Mudie's British Birds. 



f This is the general food recommended by Mr. Sweet for 

 all soft-billed birds : it is composed of an equal portion of 

 bruised hemp-seed and bread, mixed up in the following man- 

 ner : — First put some hemp-seed in a little pan or saucer, and 

 pour some boiling water on it ; then with a stick flattened at 

 the end, or some such instrument, bruise it as fine as possible, 

 and add the same quantity of soft bread, which must also be 

 bruised up with it, so that the oily milk from the seeds may be 

 mixed with the bread till it is of the consistence of a moist 

 paste. It should be mixed up every day, particularly in sum- 

 mer, or the stale food will injure their health, and make them 

 dislike it altogether, 

 t British Warblers. 



