THE PASSERINE BIRDS 129 



more esteemed as cage-birds, especially by the poorer classes, by whom 

 they are treated as a rule with great brutality, inasmuch as they are 

 generally confined in cages so small that they can barely turn round 

 therein. That such things should be is a blot on what we are pleased 

 to call our '* civilisation " ! Not only in England, but on the Continent, 

 it was a common custom to sear the eyes of these birds with a hot 

 iron in order to make them sing better ! To-day, in public-houses 

 of the lowest class, singing competitions, wherein renowned performers 

 are matched one against another, are quite common, and to attain 

 this perfection the wretched birds are made to pass most of their time 

 in the dark. 



The Brambling, or " Mountain Finch " (Plate XXVIII. fig. 10), 

 is a near relative of the Chaffinch, and occurs in some numbers in 

 Great Britain during the winter months, being remarkably abundant 

 in some years — whenever, in short, hard winters prevail on the Con- 

 tinent. The wonderful black head and neck are assumed just prior 

 to the breeding-season, and this, not by a change of feathers, but by 

 the wearing away of the brown tips of the feathers assumed at the 

 autumn moult. 



The Linnet (Plate XXVIII. fig. 6), like the Chaffinch, is a common 

 British bird, and also in great demand as a cage-bird. The horrors 

 of captivity bear no less heavily on the Linnet than on the Chaffinch. 

 It is a curious fact, but the wonderful rose-red breast which distin- 

 guishes the cock Linnet is never regained by captive birds after their 

 first moult, yellow replacing the red. 



The Bullfinch, or *' Blood Olph " (Plate XXVII. fig. 8), is a 

 bird which is generally distributed throughout England and the more 

 wooded districts of Ireland, but in Scotland it is less frequently met 

 with, though by no means a rare bird. The sexes differ conspicuously 

 in colour, the females lacking completely the wonderful red and pearl- 

 grey colours which distinguish the males. The young birds resemble 

 the female, but lack the black cap. 



The Bullfinch, like the Chaffinch, builds a remarkable nest, though 

 the workmanship of the two differs in a very striking way. The first 

 named makes a wonderful nursery of fine moss, wool, and lichen 

 cunningly felted together ; while the Bullfinch makes a platform 

 of fine twigs of birch, beech, fir, etc., surmounted by fine roots and 



17 



