The House-Sparrow 89 



strongest nestlings always fight their way to the front, so that the weaker birds 

 are unable to get sufficient food to sustain life and quickly die. 



In 1888 I successfully reared two nests of Linnets (nine birds) feeding them 

 at first on egg-food ; and, as they grew stronger, upon scalded German rape ; 

 unfortunately the whole of them died after their moult from inflammation of the 

 bowels. Since then I have been contented to return to my original plan and 

 purchase my Linnets from the bird-catchers. 



The Linnet occasionally hybridizes in a wild state with the Greenfinch (Vide 

 Stevenson, Birds of Norfolk, p. 220; Seebohm, British Birds, Vol. IL p. 77; Howard 

 Saunders, Manual Brit. Birds, p. 162; Gurne3^ Zoologist, p. 3388; Rev. H. A. 

 Macpherson, Zoologist, 1887, p. 303, etc., etc.) ; and in captivity it has been 

 successfully crossed with several species, including the Canary ; this last-mentioned 

 bastard is not at all difficult to produce, for nu- first attempt resulted in three 

 mules ; but to breed hybrid Linnet-Canaries good enough to carrj' off" prizes at 

 our shows requires judgment and experience. The rarest and most valued 

 examples are those known as clear mules, in which the colouring of the Canary 

 is combined with Linnet characteristics . theoreticall}' these should be most readily 

 produced, when both parents have been inbred for several generations ; albinism, 

 or the absence of dark colouring, being a frequent result of inbreeding. 



Family— FRINGILLID.-E. Subfamily— FRINGILLINAi. 



The House-Sparrow. 



Passer domcsticus, LiNN. 



THIS scavenger of towns and scourge of the country is distributed over the 

 greater part of Europe, but in Italj^ and on the island of Corsica is replaced 

 by a form to which the name of P. italice has been given ; eastwards it 

 ranges to Persia and Central Asia, India and Ce^don ; westwards it is found in 



VuL. II. 2 A 



