Sparrows, because they are so ugly. I want a wife who wears

bright feathers.”


And so he married a Goldfinch, the bird of seven colours.

And their children are the fat green birds that will come in front

of your window with the Sparrows if you throw out some hemp

seed. You can tell that their father was a Sparrow, because they

have thick beaks, and are greedy and fight over their food, and

they look almost the colour of a Sparrow until they spread their

wings and tail. But when they spread their wings you can tell

that their mother was a Goldfinch, for they show beautiful golden

feathers in their wings and tail. And so the books call them

Greenfinches, but the five real Finches say they are only green

Sparrows.


The five real Finches are the Hawfinch, the king of the

Finches, and the Bullfinch, and the Goldfinch, the bird of seven

colours, and the Chaffinch, who belongs to the Band of Hope

(but that is another story), and the Bramble-finch, who lives in

Norway and only comes to England in the winter.


So nobody knows what to call the greedy green birds..

Country people call them Green Linnets, though they are not a

bit like the pretty Rose Linnet that lives in the furze bush. And

poor people in London call them just Green-birds, which is-

rather rude.


This is only an old wife’s tale, but perhaps it will help you

to know those three poor dull birds when you meet them, the

Spotted Flycatcher, the Corn Bunting, and the Greenfinch.


Reprinted froin the New Forest Parish Magazine.



AVICULTURAL SMALL-TALK.



Some people have the mistaken impression that “aviculture” and

“aviculturist ” are merely newer and finer names for “fancy” and

“ fancier.” Aviculturists should do all in their power to explode this

fallacy. The truth is that aviculture and “ the fancy” are as far asunder as

the poles, and must ever remain irreconcilable. Aviculture is the practical

application of the science of ornithology, and has for its province the

acclimatization and breeding of imported species and the study of the habits

of all species, both British and foreign, especially in a state more or less

under the dominion of man. The aim of the “ fancy ” is the breeding and

exhibiting of specimens which shall as closel}' as possible conform to some

ideal artificial type. We do not suggest that these definitions exhaust the

purposes of either aviculture or “ the fancy,” but we believe that they

suffice to point out the main objects of each. The breeder of j-ellow

Budgerigars, and white Java Sparrows and Bengalese, is a “fancier,” but

those who devote themselves only to the culture of natural forms of either

British or foreign birds are not “ fanciers,” even though they may be



