NOTES AND QUERIES. 379 



far north (as Warwickshire) are rare," does he not mean " south " ? If not, 

 a visit to the Hebrides, Norway, Russia, or Siberia, would doubtless induce 

 him to alter his opinion. — H. H. Slater (Whitley, Newcastle-on-Tyne). 



Hybrids among Birds. — When writing, in reply to a correspondent, 

 on the subject of hybrids between the Linnet and Greenfinch (p. 256), 

 I had in my mind wild birds, not tame ones. Several have been obtained 

 iu different years at Brighton, and a few round London, in Norfolk, and 

 elsewhere. Three have been recently mentioned in ' The Zoologist,' by 

 the Rev. H. A. Macpherson and Mr. Hammond. I have one, if not two, 

 which were said to have been taken wild in Norfolk, but I cannot altogether 

 guarantee their antecedents; indeed, on looking closely, 1 strongly suspect 

 that one of them is not what it purports to be, but a Linnet-Canary 

 hybrid which had escaped and been shot. That such a conjunction 

 is not unlikely you will agree. I have seen a Linnet-Canary hybrid 

 in the collection of Mr. Henry Seebohm, which was shot wild near 

 Amsterdam, but had probably escaped from a cage. As he has lent it 

 to me, I may say that it is not the least like my bird, but Canaries 

 vary so much among themselves that this is easily accounted for, and the 

 parentage of both may be the same. Linnet-Greenfiuch hybrids exist in the 

 collections of Mr. Bond, Mr. Seebohm, Mr. Whitaker, and Mr. Stevenson, 

 and probably many others. I believe none of these have been shot birds, 

 and most of them bear evident marks of having been kept in confinement, 

 which, as Mr. Phillips hints, might lead a sceptical naturalist to think they 

 were tame-bred, and not really wild ; but I believe an admittedly tame-bred 

 Linnet-Greenfinch hybrid is a thing almost unknown. The marks of 

 confinement have doubtless in all cases been produced by their having been 

 netted alive and afterwards kept in a cage. In the bird-shows at Norwich, 

 which are somewhat celebrated, I have never seen a Linnet-Greenfinch 

 hybrid, but I have seen beautiful hybrid Bullfinches, which I believe were 

 produced between the Bullfinch and Goldfinch and Bullfinch and Green- 

 finch. The experience of others, as regards the Crystal Palace shows, will 

 I believe confirm this. As allusiou has been made to the two Linnet- 

 Greenfinch hybrids recorded in the ' Birds of Norfolk' (vol. i. p. 220), I may 

 remark that one of them (recorded by my father, Zool. 1852, p. 3388) is 

 unfortunately lost sight of; but the other, which was alive at the time 

 of Mr. Stevenson's writing his work, is now stuffed in his collection, and 

 shows in the most decided way the plumage of Linnet and Greenfinch, as 

 also do those iu Mr. Whitaker's and Mr. Seebohm's collections, and another 

 which I saw some years ago at Mr. Gould's, taken, I believe, at Brighton. 

 Mr. Stevenson's bird when alive even showed its double origin iu its notes, 

 which he informs me combined the shrill call-note of the Greenfinch with 

 the soft trill of the Linnet. Mr. Phillips will find a great many interesting 

 particulars in Mr. Henry Seebohm's Works (especially in ' Siberia in 



