76 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
The first Redpolls I ever had, cost me about three shillings for the pair; but 
I soon discovered that I had paid at least three times their value, inasmuch as the 
price asked by birdcatchers for equally good birds varies from eightpence to a 
shilling the pair: altogether I have had a good many, and yet never cared much 
for them: it is true that they very soon grow tame, although never so completely 
so as Siskins; but after their first moult in close confinement all the crimson and 
rose colouring disappears and never returns, the forehead becoming yellowish; and 
even in an aviary it goes after their second moult, so that a very soberly clad, 
restless, inquisitive little bird, with no proper song, but a large appetite, is all 
that remains. 
Herr Gatke’s account of a pair of Redpolls which nested in his garden in 
Heligoland is rather puzzling: he speaks of only discovering the nest in the 
autumn when the leaves were falling, yet is sure of the identity of the species 
from the fact that on one occasion he picked up two of the young birds, and 
restored them to their home amongst the elder branches. Can the Redpolls have 
been breeding in the autumn ’ 
Family—FRINGILLIDE. Subfamily—FRINGILLIN AE. 
THE TWITe. 
Acanthis flavirostris, LIXN. 
()* the Continent the Twite, according to Dr. Sharpe, is generally distributed 
throughout Europe, west of Russia, and south of the Baltic, breeding in 
Scandinavia. Howard Saunders observes that it “is found in summer among the 
islands and along the coast of Norway up to about 70° N. lat., but in Sweden it 
is scarce even in the sub-alpine districts, and it is somewhat doubtful if it nests 
in Northern Russia. On migration it visits Denmark and Northern Germany— 
sometimes passing in large numbers over Heligoland—Holland, Belgium, and 
