122 LINNET. 



hurt if 'the doctor's wife passes the cage without 

 noticing it. If, when the kitchen is left, a kettle or 

 saucepan should boil over, it calls the servant down. 

 When the tradesmen call, it expects them to feed it 

 from the grocer some tit-bit, and from the milkman a 

 drop of milk ; but should it see cream, it won't touch 

 the milk." 



In its breeding plumage the Linnet has a crimson 

 forehead, the rest of the head and neck is brownish 

 grey, shading into chestnut brown on the back ; the 

 under parts are of a buffish colour, richly mingled 

 with carmine and shading into buffish white lower 

 down. The tail feathers are dark brown, edged with 

 white. 



The Linnet builds its nest in the furze, or in short 

 thick hedges, sometimes too in the evergreens and 

 gardens. It is usually placed about four feet from the 

 ground. It is scarcely so neat in appearance as the 

 nests of the other Finches, but the inside is beautifully 

 formed and rounded. It is formed outside of dry 

 grass and moss and a few small twigs, and lined with 

 wool, hair, and vegetable down, and sometimes a few 

 feathers. Both the nest and the eggs of this bird vary 

 considerably. 



The eggs, four to six, are greenish or bluish white 

 in ground colour, spotted, blotched, and streaked with 

 reddish brown to reddish purple of different shades. 

 As previously mentioned, care must be taken in iden- 

 tifying the eggs, as large specimens are very similar to 

 small specimens of the Greenfinch ; and small speci- 

 mens are almost indistinguishable from the eggs of the 

 Goldfinch. 



