44 NOTES TO THE 



The toy-linnet is a bird that has been taught to sing by the 

 titlark, woodlark, or yellow-hammer, and only a very few take 

 the perfect song. The following is the perfect song of the toy- 

 linnet. It begins thus : 



" Pu poy, tollick, tollick, eky quak, 

 E-wheet, tollick, cha eyk, quake, wheet." 



This is one stave of the song. The next staves are : 



" Phillip, cha eke, quake, wheet, 

 Call up, cha eke, quake, wheet. 



Tollick, eke, quake, chow, 

 Eke, eke, eke, quak chow. 



Cluck cluck, chay, ter wheet tollick, eke quake, wheet, 

 Echup, echup, pipe, chow. 



Ah, ah, ah ! J-o-e, 



Eke, quake, chow, rattle. 



Tuck, tuck, wizzy, ter wheet, 

 Tolliky, quake wheet." 



This is the finish of the toy-linnet's song. Perfect toy-linnets 

 are worth any sum of money you like to ask 151. to 201. 

 would be given readily for a thorough good one. " Broken song " 

 birds are only worth 30s. to 50s. each. A broken song-bird will 

 not make his stops in the song as given above ; he will run one 

 into the other. The old song-birds (linnets) are very scarce, as 

 the trainers of them are gradually getting old and dying off. 

 When the above song is put together by a proper bird, he does it 

 just like a flute ; it is something splendid. It is said that there 

 is not a perfect bird in London at the present time. 



To get these birds to learn the song they must be taken from 

 the nest very young, before they get the call of the parent birds. 



SNOW-BUNTING, p. 42. The common snow-bunting is plentiful 

 in the autumn around the Norfolk coast, particularly at Yar- 

 mouth ; it is a very hardy bird, feeds freely on oats and any 

 kind of seed. When on flight they are often taken by the 

 ordinary observer to be pied-larks. The old birds are very light, 

 nearly white, and not worth keeping for song, only for aviaries. 



" Snow-flakes " are snow-buntings, and arrive in this country 

 in great flocks, about the Norfolk coast particularly. Formerly 

 they were rare, but now the bird-catchers keep call-birds of the 

 same species all the year round, so that the snow-buntings are 

 now very plentiful in the bird-shops in the autumn and early 

 spring. They were taken in abundance at Brighton last year. 

 They are killed and eaten as larks. 



