822 
BIRD-LIFE. 
itself, so as to be actually afloat: in the latter case, the 
nest is so thick and high that the hollow lays quite dry. 
Some pairs build a careless, slovenly structure, while 
others weave the material artistically together, somewhat 
after the fashion of a rush-basket. The female generally 
lays from nine to ten eggs: these are much larger than 
those of a Pigeon, of a beautiful oval shape, smooth and 
fine-grained in texture; their colour is a pale, reddish 
yellow ground, spotted and blotched with ash-gray and 
cinnamon- or dark brown. They are hatched about the 
twentieth day, the male relieving his mate several times 
during the labour of incubation: the tiny young are 
coal-black in colour, with naked faces and red beaks; by 
the second day they are able to swim, and, under the 
guidance of the parent birds, soon learn to find their 
own food. 
Both the old ones show the greatest affection towards 
their offspring, and will not forsake them, though they 
be continually disturbed. My father once received a nest 
containing eggs, in which the young ones already began 
to chirp: he, for pity’s sake, had it replaced, when the 
mother recommenced sitting, although they had been 
taken away from her for three hours, and succeeded in 
rearing the brood. * Naumann was once having a pond 
filled in, in which a pair of Moorhens were breeding : the 
* I may here mention an anecdote told me on the 13th of May, 1874, by the 
person who witnessed it, and who is, I may add, a reliable informant. He took a Green¬ 
finch’s nest, containing two eggs, from out of the top of a high holly-hedge, and, by 
way of experiment, placed it in another fork of the same hedge, some six or eight feet 
from the spot, very low down, and quite exposed to view. The Greenfinch, strange 
to relate, did not desert her nest, but laid three more eggs, and commenced sitting: 
unfortunately, after a few days, the eggs were sucked by some vermin, thus 
preventing the hoped-for pleasure of seeing the brood safely hatched. I saw the 
nest myself in the hedge where it had been placed, as also the site where it was 
originally built.— W. J. 
