FRINGILLIDA. 2801 
these assertions are thoroughly borne out by my own 
experience, as although I have often kept Linnets in 
confinement, and that in a good-sized aviary, I have 
never found them either attempt making a nest or 
assume the red breast. If taken in the spring, after 
they have assumed the scarlet breast, they do not 
lose it till the autumn moult. 
The beak of the Linnet is a bluish lead-colour; 
irides hazel; there is a patch of bright scarlet on the 
forehead, the rest of the head and neck are brown- 
ish grey; back, scapulars and wing-coverts rich 
reddish brown; rump yellowish brown and white; 
the tail-coverts are very pointed, black, margined 
with white; primary quills dark dusky, almost 
black, a few of them are margined on the outer 
web with pure white, which makes a conspic- 
uous patch of that colour on the wing; second- 
aries dusky, margined on the outer web with dull 
brown and tipped slightly with dull white; tertials 
not so dark and more broadly margined, especially 
on the outer web, with brownish ; tail-feathers dark 
dusky, almost black, edged rather more broadly on 
the outer web with white, the four centre feathers 
are very pointed and edged all round with white, but 
not so pure as the white on the other tail-feathers ; 
throat dullish white, streaked with dusky. The 
breast, in the spring and summer, is a beautiful 
bright scarlet, so bright that in painting the bird it 
is scarcely possible to make it too bright: the bird 
