THE LINNET, 255 



which it shells and softens in its crop, before digesting them. 

 It is especially fond of rape, cabbage, hemp, poppy, and lin- 

 seed. 



In confinement, it needs only summer rape-seed, which it is 

 not necessary to soak, as the Linnet is a bird which feeds on 

 seeds alone, and consequently has stronger digestive powers 

 than the Chaffinch. Hemp-seed does not agree with it ; and 

 it is curious that winter rape-seed, of which, when wild, it eats 

 with impunity, is almost poisonous to it in confinement. They 

 must not be fed too abundantly, on account of their naturally 

 plethoric habit of body ; and a little salt mixed occasionally 

 with their food, will be found a preservative against many 

 diseases. Such as are allowed to range the room, will eat the 

 same universal paste as the other birds. A little green food 

 is sometimes advisable, and they are fond of bathing, either in 

 sand or water. 



Breeding. The Linnet breeds twice a year, the female lay- 

 ing each time five or six blueish white eggs, thickly marked 

 with flesh-coloured and reddish brown specks and stripes. 

 The nest, which is most frequently found in pine and fir trees, 

 or in thick bushes and hedges of white and black thorn, is well 

 built of fine roots, grass stalks, and moss, lined with wool and 

 hair. The old birds feed their young from the crop, and when 

 the whole brood is taken, will continue to do so even in the 

 cage. Those which are intended to learn the song of some 

 other bird, should be taken out of the nest as soon as their tail 

 feathers have begun to grow : that is, before they have received 

 any instruction in the notes of the parents. From the very 

 first, the males may be distinguished by the white collar round 

 the neck, and the predominance of the same colour in the wings 

 and tail. 



Diseases. The diseases to which the Linnet is most liable 

 are constipation, atrophy, and epilepsy. It lives in confinement 

 from twelve to sixteen years. 



Mode of Taking. As the Linnet is a peculiarly shy bird, it 

 is difficult to catch in the barn-floor trap, even with the aid O A 

 a decoy. In spring, before they have paired, a good decoy in 

 a cage sometimes succeeds in attracting them to the decoy bush ; 

 and in autumn, they may occasionally be taken with limed 

 twigs and nooses, set among the lettuces, of which vegetable 

 they are very fond. The shepherds also arrange the salt- 



