74 NATURAL HISTORY 



and was surprised to find that their bills, 

 legs, feet, and claws were milk-white. 



A shepherd saw, as he thought, some 

 white larks on a down above my house this 

 Winter : were not these the emheriza nivalis, 

 the snow-flake of 'the Brit. Zool. / No 

 doubt they were. 



A few years ago I saw a cock bullfinch 

 in a cage, which had been caught in the 

 fields after it was come to its full colours. 

 In about a year it began to look dingy ; 

 and, blackening every succeeding year, it 

 became coal-black at the end of four. Its 

 chieffood was hempseed. Such influence 

 has food on the colour of animals ! The 

 pied and mottled colours of domesticated 

 animals are supposed to be owing to high, 

 various, and unusual food. 



I had remarked, for years, that the root 

 of the cuckoo-pint (arum) was frequently 

 scratched out of the dry banks of hedges, 

 and eaten in severe snowy weather. After 

 observing, with some exactness, myself, 

 and getting others to dothe same, we found 

 it was the thrush kind that searched it out. 



