SISKIN. COMMON LINNET. 227 



peculiarities observable in the same species. The great 

 snow-buntings caring little for this green food, keep by 

 themselves upon an upper perch, and gravely watch the 

 noisy crowd ; too gentle to resent the spiteful snappings 

 of the passing birds, whilst treating with contempt such 

 little foes. And thus, amongst the feathered race, we find 

 the semblance of our human failings, with here and there 

 our virtues copied too. Studying each little trait, the 

 mind reverts to scenes in which as strange a diversity of 

 character has presented itself amongst the members of 

 a public school. Who that has seen some fresh caught 

 bird, panting and frightened from its recent capture, 

 turned loose amongst its future mates, but has felt some 

 sympathy for that little stranger; remembering, only 

 too well, the awful day when he himself was " the new 

 boy?" 



LINOTA CANNABINA (Linnams). 

 COMMON LINNET. 



Common throughout the year and breeds with us, 

 migratory arrivals in very considerable numbers adding 

 to the flocks in autumn. Old males of this species, 

 netted, with the rose-coloured breast, at the close of the 

 breeding season, will retain the same in confinement 

 throughout the winter, but once lost through moulting, 

 it is not re-assumed. The general effect, however, of 

 cage life upon the linnets and redpoles, appears to be, to 

 change their red tints into dull yellow, and on one 

 occasion I shot a male linnet in summer, out of a small 

 flock, which had a yellow instead of a rose-coloured 

 breast, even in a wild state. Varieties of this species 

 are not often met with, but Mr. T. E. Gunn, in " The 

 Journal of the West Riding Naturalists' Society," (p. 

 148), describes one, netted at Costessey, near Norwich, 

 2 G 2 





