whole family to live and sleep in a small room. I know no 
reason why the linnet should not have a handsome “ pagoda ” 
cage as well as the canary. The objection to this shaped cage 
for goldfinches and chaffinches is their habit of “ twirling,” 
that is, looking over their heads; but this is a habit to which 
the linnet is never addicted. However, if the old shape is 
persisted in, let it be at least fifteen inches long, ten high, and 
ten deep. Let no part be wood except the back and bottom ; 
the bottom mnst be double, the upper piece sliding out at the 
end, hi order that it may be frequently taken out and scraped 
and scalded. Let the food and drinking- 
vessels be suspended outside the cage. 
Like all song-birds, the linnet is very 
fond of a bathe. Let him have it at 
least three times a week. A common 
saucer will do very well for the linnet, 
as, unlike the bullfinch and some others, 
he is not a deep bather, preferring rather 
to sit in it and to scatter about the water with his wings and 
tail. Take out the upper bottom of his cage before you let 
him bathe, as then, when he has done, you can slide it in 
.again, well covered with coarse sand, and all will be dry and 
snug again. Look frequently to his water-glass, as he some- 
dimes has a habit of fouling it. The water should be re- 
plenished twice a day, and no one who values his bird’s 
health will neglect this. 
How to Feed the Linnet. — First of all, don’t over feed him. 
Though not a greedy bird, he is not able to resist the offer of 
delicacies, upon which he will speedily grow unhealthily fat, 
and go off in a surfeit. Let the staple of his food be rape-seed 
(summer, not winter seed), and, provided it is sound (which you 
will know by its firmness and gloss), old seed is preferable to 
new, as new seed is likely to serve little birds precisely as new 
bread serves some of us. Twice a week you may put a head 
of groundsel between the bars of his cage. Once a week he 
may have a thimbleful of canary- seed, of which he is very fond. 
Hemp-seed may be given medicinally, but never at ordinary 
times. Henip-seed is of a heating nature, and, much indulged 
in, will disease the bird’s lungs. 
Diseases oe the Linnet, and how to Cere them. — If pro- 
perly fed and tended, the linnet is by no means an unhealthy 
bird; but if he is neglected, kept short of water, hung in a 
draught, or lodged in a dirty house, he soon gets out of order. 
215 
