76 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



The first Redpolls I ever had, cost me about three shillings for the pair ; but 

 I soon discovered that I had paid at least three times their value, inasmuch as the 

 price asked by birdcatchers for equally good birds varies from eightpence to a 

 shilling the pair : altogether I have had a good many, and yet never cared much 

 for them : it is true that they very soon grow tame, although never so completely 

 so as Siskins ; but after their first moult in close confinement all the crimson and 

 rose colouring disappears and never returns, the forehead becoming yellowish ; and 

 even in an aviary it goes after their second moult, so that a very soberly clad, 

 restless, inquisitive little bird, with no proper song, but a large appetite, is all 

 that remains. 



Herr Giitke's account of a pair of Redpolls which nested in his garden in 

 Heligoland is rather puzzling : he speaks of only discovering the nest in the 

 autumn when the leaves were falling, yet is sure of the identity of the species 

 from the fact that on one occasion he picked up two of the young birds, and 

 restored them to their home amongst the elder branches. Can the Redpolls have 

 been breeding in the autumn ? 



Family FRINGILLIDsE. Subfamily FRINGILLIN^.. 



THE TWITE. 



Acanthis flavirostris, LINN. 



ON the Continent the Twite, according to Dr. Sharpe, is generally distributed 

 throughout Europe, west of Russia, and south of the Baltic, breeding in 

 Scandinavia. Howard Saunders observes that it "is found in summer among the 

 islands and along the coast of Norway up to about 70 N. lat., but in Sweden it 

 is scarce even in the sub-alpine districts, and it is somewhat doubtful if it nests 

 in Northern Russia. On migration it visits Denmark and Northern Germany 

 sometimes passing in large numbers over Heligoland Holland, Belgium, and 



