BIRDS. 207 
and on the table, with great familiarity. It will feed on 
anything, and it is particularly fond of meat cut into small 
pieces. The song of the Sparrow, if we can so call its 
chirping, is far from being agreeable : this arises, how- 
ever, not from want of powers, but from its attending 
solely to the note of the parent bird. A Sparrow when 
fledged was taken from the nest and educated under a 
linnet ; it also heard, by accident, a goldfinch ; and its 
song was in consequence a mixture of the two. The male 
is particularly distinguished by a jet black spot under the 
bill upon a whitish ground. Sparrows are found nearly 
in every country of the world. 
THE LINNET (Fringilla Linota) 
Is about the size of the goldfinch ; and compensates, by a 
still more melodious voice, the want of variety in its 
plumage, which, except in the red-breasted species, is 
nearly all of one colour. Its musical talents are, like those 
of many other birds, repaid with captivity ; for it is kept 
in cages on account of its singing. 
The Red-breasted Linnet, or Redpole, generally builds 
on the sea-coast in this country, and on the Continent in 
vineyards ; but that livery of nature, the crimson scarf, 
that grows so beautifully under his neck, disappears as 
