[ 2 7 ® ] 
Mr. Adanfon in this pafTage Teems to have deduced 
two falfe inferences from having Teen a few white 
Canary birds in France, which he afterwards com- 
pares with thofe of Teneriff, and fuppofes the change 
of colour to arife merely from alteration of climate : 
it is known, however, almoft to every one, that there 
is an infinite variety in the plumage of the European 
Canary birds, which, as in poultry, arifes from their 
being pampered with fo much food, as well as con- 
finement *. 
Monf. Adanfon, in another part of his voyage 
defcribes a Roller, which he fuppofes to migrate 
fometimes to the Southern parts of Europe. 
This circumftance Thews that he could not have 
looked much into books of natural hiftory, be- 
caufe the principal fynonym of this bird is 
garrulus Argentoratenfis + ; and Linnaeus informs us 
that it is found even in Sweden ||. 
* In the fame pafTage, he compares the colour of the African 
Canary bird to that of the European linnet, and fays it is d’un 
gris prefque aujji fonce , whereas the Eurooean linnet is well 
known to be brown, and not grey. The linnet affords a very 
decifive proof that the change of plumage does not arife from 
the difference of climate, but the two caufes I have affigned. 
The cock bird, whilft at liberty, hath a red bread: : yet if it is 
either bred up in a cage from the neft, or is caught with its red 
plumage, and afterwards moults in the houfe, it never recovers 
the red feathers. 
That molt able naturalift, Monf. de Buffon, from having 
feen fome cock linnets which had thus moulted off, or perhaps 
fome hen linnets (which have not a red breaft) confiders them 
as a diftintt fpecies, ar.d compares their breeding together in 
an aviary, to that of the Canary bird and goldfinch. Ornith, 
p. XXII. 
f P. 16. | Or of Strafburgh. 
1 Faun. Suec. 94. 
The 
