106 THE FINCHES 



at least is established the smallest of our finches, so that his claim 

 to our regard and interest is or was twofold, though in what two 

 ways the debt has ever been paid, other than through the twin 

 ambition to possess both his skin and his eggs, I have yet to learn. 

 It has even been thought by some that this diminutive species, the 

 eleventh smallest on our list, is distinctively British, in the way that 

 the red grouse is so ; but this view was happily abandoned before 

 there had been time for extermination to follow upon it, as it otherwise 

 most certainly would have done, seeing that the lesser redpoll is not 

 a game bird. 1 And now, too, the old opinion in regard to this little 

 bird's peculiar love of our island must either be held to have been 

 erroneous, or else it has shaken off its insular prejudices and become 

 cosmopolitan. It has now, for some time, been domestically estab- 

 lished, by Dr. Hartert and others, both in West and Central Europe, 

 and Dr. Hartert, moreover though in this he stands opposed to 

 both Tschusi and Deichler declares that British and continental 

 specimens are indistinguishable. May this point not be tested by a 

 few hundred thousand comparisons ! 2 



In spite of the merits, real or imagined, of the lesser-redpoll, his 

 cousin Linaria, the mealy-redpoll (so named, we are told, from a certain 

 farinaceous appearance of the plumage), is perhaps the more interest- 

 ing bird of the two, partly by reason of his more linnet-like breast and 

 richer " poll," but more on account of his tit-like activity amidst the tops 

 of trees, and free, bold flight, many together, the call-notes uttered, as 

 the linnet's are, on the wing in fine, by a certain charm of manner, 

 a wild way which he brings with him from the north. These latter 

 traits link him, yet subtly, to the siskin also, who conies mostly, like 

 himself, in the winter, and whose entertaining, or most entertaining, 

 springtide activity, as performed by the male, is but seldom seen in 

 this country. For mounting, with blythe song, from the summit of some 



1 The red grouse, of course, is, to which fact it owes its preservation. 



s This is not said without warrant even recent warrant. I protest against certain 

 pedantic slaughters to which our birds a part of the national wealth of the country may, 

 in spite of the law, be exposed. 



