280 
Breeding of the Hooded Siskin. 
tlie edge of the nest, and later at -i p.m. he was squatting on the 
ground. 
The weather was atrocious, floods of rain and a falling 
glass, so fearing the chick would perhaps roost outside and be 
drowned, I did a somewhat risky thing, and caught both him and 
his mother, caged them, and left the cage in the aviary, so that the 
hen should not miss her mate. Neither of the birds seemed to 
mind my interference, so on the folloAving day I brought the cage 
indoors, where the birds would be protected from the night fogs, 
which we get here in the Autumn. 
The male seemed none the worse for his enforced celibacy 
but I often heard him calling to the hen, who, I believe, answered 
him though at a distance of quite thirty yards. 
On Oct. 1st I saw the chick fed by his mother on several 
occasions, and he also picked up and ate sponge cake himself. The 
following are my notes of his colour at this date. 
Beak, dark horn colour ; irides, dark brown or black ; fore- 
head, head and nape, ashy brown ; back and rump, rufous brown; 
chin, chest, and underparts, cinnamon brown ; primaries, dark 
brown with grey tips ; secondaries similar, but having the outer 
webs of an orange brown colour for a distance of half-an-inch 
from their bases ; scapulars, dark brown tipped with orange brown; 
wing-coverts, brown tipped with light brown ; tail, dark brown ; 
feet and legs, flesh colour. On Oct. 3rd, the chick was again seen 
feeding, and on Oct. -ith, could crack hard seed, and was flying 
strongly. 
Summary. — I gather then from my observations, that the 
male takes no part in building, incubation or in feeding the young- 
It has occured to me however that he might do so if there were 
several chicks, instead of only one, The incubation period is 
probably from twelve to fourteen days, but this point however re- 
mains to be cleared up, seeing that the hen sat from the beginning 
and laid four eggs of which only one was hatched. The young 
leave the nest in about sixteen days, and are independent at three 
weeks or a little later. 
LATER.— On October Oth, I caught the cock bird and put 
him in with the hen and chick He behaved very well and oc- 
casionally relieved the hen of the duties of feeding the youngster. 
If these notes be deemed unnecessarily hurried, our Editor, 
must be blamed, for on receiving a letter from me enquiring 
