FOR CAGES AND A VIARIES. 



73 



It must be admitted, however, that the female Greenfinch 

 is a dingy-looking little grey thing with a suspicion 

 of green and yellow here and there, while the young 

 are curiously speckled, so that some inexperienced 

 persons have imagined them to be hybrids between 

 the ordinary brown Linnet and the Greenfinch, and 

 the fable that the two species interbreed promiscuously 

 in a state of freedom passes current for truth in certain 

 quarters, where one might naturally have looked for more 

 enlightenment. 



V\ L\ 



THE GREENFINCH. 



The call-note of this species is singularly loud and 

 clear, and reminds the auditor of that of the Canary; the 

 eggs of the two species are also very much alike, and 

 the notion suggested itself to a well-known ornithologist, 

 a few years ago, that there might be some "common 

 ancestor" connection between them: so the two birds were 

 paired together, and produced a series of mules, for mules 

 the young ones all were and nothing more, and the evolu- 

 tionary theory, at least as far as the Greenfinch and the 

 Canary were concerned, broke down. 



The food of the Greenfinch consists of seeds and buds, 

 and it does a good deal of mischief in gardens and 



