. British birds for cages and aviaries; a hanbook relating to all British birds which may be kept in confinement .. . in most parts of the country, and theadult male in full plumage a sufficiently handsome form may be a trifle clumsy, and the plumage besomewhat suggestive of boiled spinach and q%%, but thedark green and the golden yellow on the wings havetheir attraction .for some eyes, while the harsh raspingnote of the bird passes for an agreeable song in certainquarters. Truly there is no accounting for taste, andwe are not going to cjuarrel with anybody about suchtrivial matters. F
. British birds for cages and aviaries; a hanbook relating to all British birds which may be kept in confinement .. . in most parts of the country, and theadult male in full plumage a sufficiently handsome form may be a trifle clumsy, and the plumage besomewhat suggestive of boiled spinach and q%%, but thedark green and the golden yellow on the wings havetheir attraction .for some eyes, while the harsh raspingnote of the bird passes for an agreeable song in certainquarters. Truly there is no accounting for taste, andwe are not going to cjuarrel with anybody about suchtrivial matters. FOR CAGES AND A VIARIES, 73 It must be admitted, however, that the female Greenfinchis a dingy-looking little grey thing with a suspicionof green and yellow here and there, while the youngare curiously speckled, so that some inexperiencedpersons have imagined them to be hybrids betw^eenthe ordinary brown Linnet and the Greenfinch, andthe fable that the two species interbreed promiscuouslyin a state of freedom passes current for truth in certainquarters, where one might naturally have looked for The Greenfinch. The call-note of this species is singularly loud andclear, and reminds the auditor of that of the Canary; theeggs of the two species are also very much alike, andthe notion suggested itself to a well-known ornithologist,a few years ago, that there might be some commonancestor connection between them: so the two birds werepaired together, and produced a series of mules, for mulesthe young ones all were and nothing more, and the evolu-tionary theory, at least as far as the Greenfinch and theCanary were concerned, broke down. The food of the Greenfinch consists of seeds and buds,and it does a good deal of mischief in gardens and 74 BRITISH BIRDS orchards that is laid to the account of the Bullfinch andthe Sparrow, nor has it the redeeming traits that distinguishthose birds, which suffer for misdoings not their own; itnever touches an insect, and prefers th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectcag
