SONG. 



11 



a blackish colour ; these spots sometimes unite into a wreath 

 at the blunter end, sometimes, too, they are entirely of one 

 colour, or very nearly so ; in size and shape they resemble 

 those of the tame bird, only that they bulge more at the 

 longer side. The breeding time lasts 13 days, at about that 

 time the young birds are fledged, and they are, for some 

 time yet, fed from the crop by both the old ones, principally 

 by the male bird, according to Bocker, with various seeds of 

 grasses and salads, with the tender leaves of different kinds 

 of salad, the soft kernels and the juice of broken figs. 

 According to Bocker, three, and according to Bolle, four 

 breedings take place every year. At the end of July the 

 moulting season begins. 



W. Hartwig saw at Madeira a nest a little over a yard 

 high in a vine ; he found, however, some high up on 

 cypresses, stout oaks, gigantic fever-trees (Eucalyptus 

 robustus), and on strong, leafy, Indian fig-trees (Ficus 

 comosa). The nests are always lined for the greatest part 

 with vegetable wool, the outside is adapted to the environs, 

 and therefore difficult to be found. One of my friends 

 noticed the first young birds flying on the 25th of March, 

 and I saw them myself on the 26th. After the last days 

 of March the chirping of the young birds could be heard 

 in every large garden or plantation. Their demeanour in 

 begging for food, their movements, and their deportment, 

 are the same as of our tamed birds. The number of hatch- 

 ing is, for Madeira, two, exceptionally sometimes three per 

 annum. 



Song. — While the female hatches, the male sits near, 

 from preference, high, upon yet leafless trees, or on dry 

 twigs, and it is, most frequently, from that eminence, that 

 his song will be heard. The value of that song, says Bolle, 

 has been the subject of frequent dispute ; overestimated 

 and praised to excess by some, it was not commended by 



