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A 7 ales of a Bit d-Keeper iti Liguria.



Lesser Redpoll until lie lias heard the sundown concert of a flood

of them in a wintry larch plantation.


Citril Finches (F. citrinella ) have appeared this autumn

for the first time in eight years, and I find them pleasing in the

bird-room ; tame as Siskins, rather like tiny Greenfinches, but

with a Linnet-like softness of expression and a deep call-note for

so small a bird. We are strong in Sparrows, with House, Cisal¬

pine. Tree and Rock. The two former are much the commonest,

and have become through persecution so wary that they always

keep in little groups, and are seldom shot or snared. At a

distance the Cisalpine is not easy to distinguish from the House-

Sparrow. The Tree-Sparrow is not seldom caught with Siskins

and Mountain Finches, and is more vagrant than the House-

Sparrow, for the latter never roams with other birds here. The

Rock-Sparrow (P. petronia') occurs during its winter wanderings.

Its pale plumage recalls the ground birds, and the curious

sulphur-coloured ace of diamonds on its breast is, at times, quite

hidden. Hawfinches, Chaffinches and Mountain Finches are

more plentiful in winter, and the latter materially help to fill

the coat-pockets of the local sportsmen.


The S. European Buntings are many in kinds, but one in

character, and nearly all I have kept were dull, fiuttersome and

stupid. Meadow and Cirl Buntings are common ; in an aviary

they will flap for years against the same window-pane, when a

tew feet off there is exit to the outer world. One Ortolan I had

became tame and had a pleasant little song. In point of intelli¬

gence I should place the whole family at the bottom of the

Passerines. Nor is the Golden Oriole more commendable—hard

to please in the matter of food, and most time a spell-bound

dreamer, with feet singularly small for so large a fowl. I have a

young male now, in immature green and grey, rather like a

Grey Woodpecker, that scorns even mealworms. Figs and bread

pulped with boiled milk suits it better than mixed insect food.


Tits, of course, are indispensable. There is nothing stupid

about them, indeed the Great Tit has almost corvine perceptions.

The Crested Tit I found rather less restless than its congeners.

The seeds of the stone pine, Pignoli, are much liked by the whole

group, and Robins and Rock-Thrushes bolt them whole like pills.



