THE GREENFINCH’S FOOD. 
smaller and lier plumage browner, and the belly grey. The 
nest of the greenfinch must be looked for not among the leaves 
of a tree, but at the butts of large branches, just where the 
branch juts from the trunk. The nest is small, and constructed 
principally of wool, hair, and feathers. The eggs are very 
beautiful, being dazzlingly white and spangled with rich brown 
spots. Although the greenfinch is a remarkably hardy bird 
when full grown, he is delicate while a nestling, so that it is 
not advisable to take them in the nest until they are tolerably 
well fledged, which will be about the beginning of July. You 
may at once know the male nestlings from the female, as the 
latter are grey -green, while the former are yellow-green. 
The Greenfinch’s Cage. — Any cage suits the greenfinch. 
Hot being given to “ twirling,” or such like frivolities, he may 
as safely be placed in a bell-shaped, open-roofed cage as in one 
considered proper for the chaffinch. If you provide him with 
two perches, very good ; if with three, the more the merrier ; 
if you don’t give him any perch at all, never mind — he will 
roost on the edge of his seed-bos. He is not whimsical, as are 
other birds of his tribe, and never grumbles, however mean his 
house or however scantily furnished. 
But bear in mind he is as great a stickler 
for cleanliness as the very handsomest of his 
brethren, and is as careful of his olive-green 
coat as is the goldfinch of his variegated 
garment. Therefore give the greenfinch water 
enough, let him never pine for a bath or a 
drinking-vessel full of fair water. Likewise 
see that the bottom of his cage is well strewn 
with sharp sand, and that the drawer of the 
cage be scraped twice a week, and once a 
week scalded. 
How to Feed the Greenfinch. — Like the siskin, the green- 
finch is a very hearty feeder, indeed it is this simple failing (is 
it a failing, boys ?) that makes him an objectionable companion 
in the aviary. If any bird presumes to interrupt him while he 
is feeding, he will dart at, and take a beak full of feathers from 
the aggressor’s poll in an instant. This is the greenfinch’s mode 
of attack, and I have seen birds who have been a few months 
his companions, with their heads plucked as bald as pebbles. 
The staple of his food should be an equal mixture of rape and 
cabbage-seed, with, once a week, a few grains of hemp. It is 
highly necessary that this bird should be well supplied with 
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