84 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND Eaas. 
strongest nestlings always fight their way to the front, so that the weaker birds 
are unable to get sufficient food to sustain life and quickly die. 
In 1888 I successfully reared two nests of Linnets (nine birds) feeding them 
at first on egg-food; and, as they grew stronger, upon scalded German rape; 
unfortunately the whole of them died after their moult from inflammation of the 
bowels. Since then I have been contented to return to my original plan and 
purchase my Linnets from the birdcatchers. 
The Linnet occasionally hybridizes in a wild state with the Greenfinch (Vide 
Stevenson, Birds of Norfolk, p. 220; Seebohm, British Birds, Vol. II, p. 77; Howard 
Saunders, Manual Brit. Birds, p. 162; Gurney, Zoologist, p. 3388; Rev. H. A. 
Macpherson, Zoologist, 1887, p. 303, etc., ete.); and in captivity it has been 
successfully crossed with several species, including the Canary: this last-mentioned 
bastard is not at all difficult to produce, for my first attempt resulted in three 
mules; but to breed hybrid Linnet-Canaries good enough to carry off prizes at 
our shows requires judgment and experience. The rarest and most valued 
examples are those known as clear mules, in which the colouring of the Canary 
is combined with Linnet characteristics: theoretically these should be most readily 
produced, when both parents have been inbred for several generations; albinism, 
or the absence of dark colouring, being a frequent result of inbreeding. 
Family—FRINGILLID A. Subfamily—FRINGILLINA:. 
THE House-SPaRROW. 
Passer domesticus, LANN. 
HIS scavenger of towns and scourge of the country is distributed over the 
greater part of Europe, but in Italy and on the island of Corsica is replaced 
by a form to which the name of P. :falie has been given; eastwards it ranges to 
