The Endurance of Birds. 
culty in sexiny up, as the male sings almost incessantly and the 
hen but seldom. One writer states that the hen has a white spot 
on the chin — this 1 cannot say — my hen has no such mark, but 
in making this comment 1 must state that I have had but one 
pair. 
Its nest is usually found in a bush, seldom more than 3 
feet from the ground, it is built of grass and lined with softer 
materials; usually four eggs are laid — yellowish white, more 
or less spotted with buff. Incubation lasts twelve or thirteen 
days. The young are covered with whitish down and leave the 
nest when about three weeks old. The nesting time is from 
September to January, hence the comparative failure to breed 
this Serin by the bulk of English aviculturists. 
One writer states that they readily breed, and ought to be 
called love birds because of their affection one for the other — 
with this 1 cannot agree. I believe that in Great Britain there 
are not more than a dozen fully recorded instances of the actual 
rearing of young, though its Grey relative with some avicultur- 
ists rears its young freely. Though kept together all the year 
round (and in separate pairs also), there appears to be neither 
intercourse nor affection (rather the reverse) between the sexes, 
except during the period of nidihcation; they also re-pair each 
season, the hen alone incubates, she comes off for a few min- 
utes only in the morning (the eggs meanwhile being left uncov- 
ered) during the remainder of the day the cock feeds her on the 
nest. 
Though always in the pink of condition, they never 
attempted to build with me till August 1905. I have never seen 
the cock make play to the hen, as nearly all species of birds do, 
but rather seems to make himself disagreeable; he hisses vigor- 
ously and apparently swears considerably at his wife. Just 
before they commenced building I really became alarmed for 
they went at it " hammer and tongs "; the hen had patches of 
feathers pulled out and was bleeding in several places on the 
head, she went crouching anywhere she could to get away from 
the violence and persecution of her husband; for more than a 
week this went on, till I began to fear I should have to separate 
them, though I was quite certain they were a pair; but it w^as 
only nature, for all at once it ceased — there was calm. The hen 
