TTfE LINNET. 



I wadna gie the Unties sang, 



Sae merry on the broomy lea, 

 For all the harps that ever rang 



In all the halls of minstrelsie. 

 Mair dear to me, where bush or breer 



Amang the pathless heather grows, 

 The Unties wild sweet note to hear, 



As on the ev'nin' breeze it flows. 



Burns. 



THE LINNET, either gray or brown, is a beautiful 

 songster, and is very generally kept throughout Eu- 

 rope. He is of a hardy constitution, easily domesti- 

 cated, a most lovely and constant singer, uttering 

 many very sweet, flute-like notes ; and if fed princi- 

 pally on canary and rape seed, with occasionally a 

 very few hemp seed, will remain in health. 



These two birds are spoken of as two distinct 

 varieties, but in reality they are not ; for the same 

 bird which at one year old, when it has no red feath- 

 ers in the head, is a gray linnet, becomes after the 

 second moulting, when the red of the breast takes a 

 golden hue from the yellowish-white margins of the 



