CURIOUS HABIT OF THE COMMON LINNET, 29 



The fact that I now relate happened some years ago, and from the situation 

 in which the said Thrush places its nest, and the wildness of the species 

 itself, I am afraid I am not likely to be favoured again with an opportunity 

 of so closely observing its manners. 



The nest of the Missel Thrush, to which I now allude, was placed in a 

 lime tree some way from the ground, but so near to the house that I could, 

 from the upper window, look down into the nest, not six feet from me. When 

 the parent bird had fed the young, four in number, it invariably sat on the 

 edge of the nest and received, as deposited, the excrement of each of its young 

 in turn, and then and there devoured it with the greatest apparent gusto — that 

 is to say three, for the remaining one was carried away to a neighbouring tree, 

 always the same, and to the same branch* and I suppose, as I could find no 

 remains, that it likewise was there disposed of in the same way. When 

 the other parent bird arrived, (if immediately,) it always remained on the 

 nest, seemingly half-asleep, until the young again wished to perform the office 

 of nature. Query? — ^Was this solely for i\\Q protection of the young, or may it 

 not have rather been a provkion of nature, for the mtstenance of the parents 

 while they fed their children on the more delicate viands? 



Sivinhope Rectory, iiear Market Basen, Feb. 8th., 1851. 



CURIOUS HABIT OF 

 THE COMMON LINNET, (LINOTA GANNABINA.) 



BY THE REV. J. PEMRERTON BARTLETT. 



The following anecdote respecting a curious habit of the Common Linnet, 

 which fell under my notice while walking one day on a common, may prove 

 interesting to the readers of ^'The Naturalist :" — 



[ had just passed a low furze bush, when my attention was attracted to 

 a bird, which fluttered and fell a few feet before me, as if in a fit. My first 

 impulse was to step quickly forward and pick it up — the former of which I 

 did; but when within about two feet of it, it rose and fluttered on a few yards 

 further. Thinking it was wounded, I again attempted to pick it up, when it 

 again appeared to receive a fresh amount of strength, and made another intox- 

 icated kind of progress for a few yards further yet. This it did several times, 

 and I began to doubt if I should catch it after all; when at last, to my great 

 joy, just as I was near enough to 'pri'-^ some salt on its tail,' it rose up and 

 flew away, twittering (laughing at me as I found afterwards) like the strongest 

 and pertest Linnet in the world! At first I was puzzled to account for its 

 very eccentric behaviour, but it struck me that, possibly, like the Partridge, 

 it might have performed the antics described, to decoy me from its nest. I 

 therefore returned and searched the furze bush, where, sure enough, I found 

 it with five eggs, which were still warm from the heat of that body, which 

 the faithful little bird had exposed for their preservation, for had I been so 



