40 
CAGE AND SINGING BIRDS. 
woody declivities : its nest is built of dried grass, moss, and 
vegetable fibres, and usually lined with feathers or hair, 
sometimes both 5 it is placed in a bank, among the tangled 
oots of thorn, or other bushes, or under the thick covert of 
.he furze or gorse, or in the meadow, closely concealed 
beneath the rank herbage. The eggs are from five to seven 
in number, of a greenish-blue colour. The whole appear- 
ance of this diminutive songster, which does not measure 
five inches, including the tail, that being about an inch and 
a half long, is curious and striking : the breast and all the 
lower part of the body is a dirty white, powdered over, as 
it would seem, with red brickdust : the back and wing- 
coverts are a dark brown, tinged here and there with rust 
colour, and bordered with black ; on each of the latter is a 
patch of white; the tail feathers are reddish or yellowish 
white, with edges of black, which is also the colour of the 
legs, billj and cheeks ; the top of the head is a mottled 
brown, and a white patch extends from the base of the bill 
on either side to the back of the head, giving to the bird & 
frog-like appearance. The female is altogether lighter in 
colour, and the white patches in the wings are smaller ; at 
each moulting, until the third year, a considerable difference 
takes place in the plumage of these birds : it is only after 
this period that the back of the head and cheeks become 
black, and the white stripe on each side broad and 
distinct. 
This is a bird easily caught, either by means of traps, 
nooses, or limed twigs ; the best bait is some living insect ^ 
it is particularly fond of small beetles, earwigs, and but- 
terflies ; and food of this kind, occasionally, is absolutely ne- 
cessary to its subsistence in a state of confinement, where its^ 
general food may be bruised hemp-seed and bread, in order 
to induce it to eat which, when first taken, a few insects 
must be stuck into the food. It is a delicate bird, and very 
susceptible of cold, and one, too, which soon acquires the 
notes of other birds. We have heard of an individual of 
the species, which sang so loudly as to be quite unpleasant 
in a room. Bechstein describes it as a quiet, melancholy 
bird in the house, with a song much like tliat of the 
goldfinch, and a call-note resem^bling the syllables ffcu- 
