THE MOUNTAIN FINCH
Fringilla montifringilla, Linnæus; Le Pinson d’drdenne, Buffon; Der Bergfink, Bechstein
This bird is six inches and a quarter in length, of which the tail measures two and a half and the beak half an inch; this is yellow, with a black tip. The feet, nine lines high, are dark flesh-coloured; all the feathers of the head and cheeks are black with reddish edges, wider and more distinct in young males, and becoming fainter from age, almost disappear in old ones, whose heads become quite black; the tail rather forked, and black.
The colours of the female are more uniform; she is brown where the male is black, and only a rusty colour where he is red.
Independently of the varieties produced by age, and which are tolerably numerous, without being very remarkable, there are some more remarked, such as those with a white head, a back quite white, &c.
Habitation. – In their wild state this species is scattered throughout Europe; however, it is most probable that in the summer they only inhabit the northern parts. During the three other seasons they are found everywhere in Germany, particularly where there are large forests. When beech-mast is plentiful in Thuringia the mountain finches assemble in immense numbers, it is supposed more than 100,000.
In the house they are kept in a cage or not, according as they are esteemed; where they are common they are not thought worthy of one, but allowed to range at will.
Food. – Wild, and in confinement, it is the same as the chaffinch’h.
Mode of Taking. – This bird’s note of call is ïak, ïak, quääk, and as the two first sounds are the same as that of the chaffinch, they will come at its call, and fly in its company. They also afford the best sport with a net, for in autumn hundreds may be taken at one cast. In winter they are caught near barns under nets, or even under common sieves; and in spring on a decoy bush, at the call of the chaffinch, if one of its own species cannot be procured.
Attractive Qualities. – We cannot boast of sweetness in the song of this bird, as it consists of low whistling, or a kind of warbling, intermixed at intervals with a shrill “raitch,” the whole somewhat resembling the first exercises of the chaffinch; but this wretched warbling may be improved by education. A mountain finch placed by the side of a chaffinch that sung well, learnt to imitate it tolerably, but I must confess that it never attained great perfection. I should warn bird-fanciers who wish to keep these birds for the beauty of their plumage, not to let them range with many companions, for they are quarrelsome, and very lavish in distributing severe pecks, especially if food is not very abundant. In Thuringia they are kept in cages to be employed as lures in the area or decoy enclosure. It is said that it is easier to teach them to go and come than the chaffinch.
THE HOUSE SPARROW
Passer domestica, Ray; Le Moineau franc, Buffon; Der Haussperling, Bechstein
Though this and the following species cannot be reckoned among those that are pleasant in a room, yet I must not omit them on account of their being easily preserved, and though distinguished neither for their song nor their colours, yet they make up for the want of these by agreeable qualities, that many, much more admired, do not possess.
It is almost superfluous to describe a species so well known. The total length is five inches and three quarters; the beak thick and blue black; the feet greyish brown; the top of the head and cheeks greyish ash-coloured with a broad chestnut streak behind the eyes, elsewhere surrounded with black.
The female differs a good deal, the upper part of the body being greyish red, spotted with black on the back, and the under part of a dusky greyish white.
The young males before their first moulting very much resemble their mothers.
The varieties known here are the white, the yellow, the tawny, the black, the blue, the ash-coloured, and the streaked.
Habitation. – In its wild state, it haunts the vicinity of houses; when confined, it is allowed to range the room.
Food. – If, unfortunately, it is too true that the sparrows cause great injury in ripe fields of wheat, barley, and peas, it must be acknowledged that they are very useful in our orchards and gardens, by destroying, in the spring, thousands of insects, on which they feed their young ones as well as themselves44. In the house, they feed on any kind of food: oats, hemp seed, or rape seed.
Breeding. – Small openings under the tiles, crevices in walls, empty martin’s nests, are the places they appropriate for breeding, and they line their nest thickly with feathers. The female has two or three broods every season, and has from five to seven young ones at a time.
Mode of Taking. – Sparrows are so cunning that it is difficult to attract them within the net or on lime twigs. They may be caught in numbers however on the brambles in a field where sheep are kept, by sticking plenty of bird-lime about them. They may be taken also by placing a net before those that have retired to cherry trees and under the tiles to sleep for the night.
Attractive Qualities. – The bird-fancier who enjoys seeing several birds running about the room, will, with pleasure, admit the sparrow among them, and may amuse himself especially by observing it breed and produce mules with the hen tree-sparrow. A jar or cup placed in a corner will serve as their nuptial bed. A male tree-sparrow with a hen sparrow does not succeed.
The sparrow may be easily taught to go and come at command, by choosing winter as the time to effect it. It is necessary first to keep it a month near the window in a large cage supplied with the best food, such as millet, meal, or white bread soaked in milk. It will even go there to deposit its eggs if a small box is placed in the cage, with an opening for it to enter at. Finally, no bird becomes more familiar, or testifies more attachment to its master. Its actions are very lively, confiding, and delicate. A soldier, says Buffon, had a sparrow which followed him every where, and knew him in the midst of the regiment.
THE TREE SPARROW, Lath
Passer montana, Ray; Friquet, ou Moineau des haies, Buffon; Der Feldsperling, Bechstein
This species is more beautiful than the preceding. In length it is five inches and a half; the beak is dusky; the feet are bluish flesh-coloured; the upper part of the head as far as the nape of the neck is reddish brown; the cheeks are white with a black spot; a white ring surrounds the neck; the back is spotted with black and red; the lower part of the back and the rump are grey brown; the throat white, the breast light ash-coloured; the belly dusky white; the quill feathers and tail are dark brown; the lesser wing-coverts rust-red; the greater, black with red edges and white tips, which form two transverse bars.
Two varieties are known, the white and streaked.
Habitation. – In their wild state, they are not only found throughout Europe, but also in the north of Asia and America. In Germany and England it is not so common as the house sparrow, for in some provinces it is never seen. It frequents gardens, orchards, and fields abounding with trees and hedges. In September, large flights are seen to fall upon the ripe fields of barley and oats.
In the house it is let run about like the former, which it does very awkwardly from having short legs, and this gives it the appearance of dragging along on its belly. It is only kept in a cage in countries where it is very rare.
Food. – This is the same as that of the preceding.
Breeding. – The nest must be sought in the holes of fruit trees, or in hollow willows at the water’s edge; it breeds twice in the year.
Mode of Taking. – This is the same as the preceding; but being less distrustful and cunning, it is easily enticed under a sieve placed before a barn in winter.
Attractive Qualities. – Its plumage is prettier than the preceding, its song is also less short and monotonous; but it is weak, and when it might be sweet, it is lost among the other songs in the room. The tree sparrow might be accustomed in the country to go and come at command by treating it in the manner described with respect to the house sparrow. It is more difficult to preserve it, and it generally dies of decline.
THE COMMON LINNET
Fringilla cannabina, Linnæus; La Linotte, Buffon; Der Lanning, Bechstein
The length of this well-known bird is more than five inches, of which the tail measures two inches and a half. The beak, six lines long, is dusky blue in summer, and in winter greyish white, with the point brown; the iris dark brown; the feet, eight lines high, are black. There are some very striking varieties produced by the season and age in the plumage of the male, which are not observed in the female, and these have caused great confusion in works on birds, so much, that bird-catchers are still persuaded these birds, in a different dress, are distinct species.
Instructed by long experience and the observations of many years, I hope to show in my description that our common linnet (Fringilla Linota, Linnæus), the greater redpole (Fringilla cannabina, Linnæus), and, according to all appearance, the mountain linnet (Fringilla montana, Linnæus), are one and the same species. A male three years old or less, is distinguished in spring by the following colours, and by the name of redpole. The forehead is blood red, the rest of the head reddish ashcoloured, the top rather spotted with black; the cheek, sides of the neck, and the circle round the eyes, have a reddish white tint; the feathers of the back are chestnut with the edges lighter; the upper tail-coverts are black edged with reddish white; the throat and under part of the neck are yellowish white, with some dashes of reddish grey; the sides of the breast are blood red edged with reddish white, the sides of the belly are pale rust-coloured; the rest of the under part of the body is reddish white; the greater wing coverts are black, bordered with reddish white, the others are rusty brown with a lighter border. The quill-feathers are black tipped with white, the first are edged with white nearly to the point, the narrow beard forms a parallel white streak to the quill-feathers; the tail is black and forked, the four outer feathers on both sides have a broad white border, that of the two middle feathers is narrower, and reddish white.
After moulting, in autumn, little red is seen on the forehead, because the feathers become coloured from the bottom to the top; the breast has not yet acquired its red tint, for the white border is still too wide; but when winter comes its colours appear.
Males one year old have no red on the head, and more dashes of black; the breast is pale red waved with pale and dark, the under part of the feathers on the breast is only a bright reddish grey brown, the edges of these feathers are of a reddish white; the back rust-colour has some detached spots of dark brown and reddish white. These birds are known under the name of grey linnets.
After the second moulting, if the reddish grey feathers are blown aside, blood red specks may be discovered on the forehead, and the red of the breast is only hidden by the wide yellowish white borders to the feathers; these are the yellow linnets, or the rock linnets, as they are called in Thuringia.
I have myself taken linnets whose foreheads and breasts have been bright reddish yellow instead of blood red, a colour, in fact, that sometimes, in the house, becomes blood red. Bird-catchers give these also the name of yellow linnets. It is a deterioration of the red caused by illness during moulting, or by old age, and they are not wrong in regarding them as the best and the finest singers. I have taken several, but on account of their scarcity, I have always kept them for myself. Their song was very fine and clear, but they cannot be tamed, and have generally died soon of sorrow and melancholy, from which I conclude that they were very old.
Besides these three different varieties of plumage of the males, there are several clouded, produced by the seasons and old age; for instance, the older they become, the redder the head is. I have in my cabinet all the gradations of this change. Birds brought up in the house never acquire the fine red on the forehead and breast, but remain grey like the males of one year old; on the other hand, old ones, red when brought into the house, lose their beautiful colours at the first moulting, and remaining grey like the young ones, are no more than grey linnets.
This difference of colour does not take place in the females, which are smaller than the males; the upper part of the body is grey streaked with dusky brown and yellowish white, on the rump with greyish brown and reddish white; these spots are more numerous on the breast; the wing-coverts are a dusky chestnut. The females are distinguished in the nest by the back being more grey than brown, and by the number of streaks on the breast, which resembles that of the lark; bird-fanciers leave these in the nest and take only the males.
Habitation. – In its wild state the linnets are spread throughout Europe. In the summer they frequent the skirts of large forests, thickets, hedges, and bushes, particularly furze; but as soon as September arrives, they pass in large flights to the fields. They are wandering birds, that in winter go hither and thither seeking food in places free from snow, but in March they return to their native places.
In confinement it is best to keep them in square cages, as they are less subject to giddiness in these than in round ones, and sing better. They are not often allowed to range the room, as they are very indolent, remaining immoveable in the same place, and running the risk of being trodden on; but if a small tree or a roost be placed in a corner, they may be let out of the cage with safety, as they will remain perched there, only leaving it to eat or drink, and will sing all day long.
Food. – When wild, their food is all kinds of seeds that they can shell, and these remain in the crop some time to be moistened before passing into the stomach. In the house, it is only summer rape seed,45 which need not be soaked in water for them, as for the chaffinch, since, having a much stronger crop and stomach, they can digest much better. It is not necessary always to give them hemp seed with it, and they must not be fed abundantly, for taking little exercise, they easily become fat, and sometimes die from this cause; but a little salt mixed with their food is useful, as it preserves them from many diseases, and they like it. When linnets are allowed to run about, they will feed with the other birds on the common universal paste; but they must be given green vegetables, water, and sand, as they are very fond of bathing and dusting themselves.
Breeding. – Linnets have two broods in the year. They lay from four to six eggs for each, of a bluish white, speckled with reddish brown, especially at the large end. Their nest placed in a hedge, a white or black-thorn, or, if in a country where they are common, on a vine, or a furze bush, is composed of small twigs, dried grass and moss, and lined with wool, the hair of horses, and other animals. The parent birds feed their young ones from their beaks, and do not discontinue it if prisoners in the same cage. If the young ones are to be taught a new song, they must be taken from the nest when the shafts of the feathers are just appearing, that they may have no idea of their parents’ song. The males may be easily distinguished by their white collar, and from having the most white about the wings and tail.
Diseases. – The most common disorders of this species are constipation, atrophy, and epilepsy. A linnet, however, will, in general, live from ten to twelve years in the house.
Mode of Taking. – These birds are distrustful and suspicious, and, notwithstanding decoys and perching birds, it is very difficult to entice them within the decoy or area, and never many together. In the spring, by means of a good decoy-bird, a few may be taken on a decoy-bush. In the autumn, by fastening snares or lime twigs to the stalks of lettuces, of the seeds of which the linnets are very fond, several may be taken. Our shepherds turn and support the cribs, used to feed the sheep from, in such a manner, that the linnets, coming to gather the grains of salt, easily overturn them on themselves. The call of the linnet is “gäcker.”
Attractive Qualities. – The agreeable, brilliant, and flute-like song of the linnet, consists of several strains, succeeding each other very harmoniously. Our amateurs consider its beauty to depend on there being often mingled with it some acute and sonorous tones, that a little resemble the crowing of a cock, and have made people say that this bird crows. Its song is only interrupted during the year by moulting. A young one taken from the nest, which may be easily brought up on a mixture of the wetted crumb of white bread, soaked rape seed, and eggs boiled hard, not only learns the songs of different birds that it hears in the room, such as nightingales, larks, and chaffinches, but if kept by itself, airs and melodies that are whistled to it, and will even learn to repeat some words. Of all house birds, this, from the softness and flute-like sound of its voice, gives the airs that it is taught in the neatest and most agreeable manner. It is also one of those that pay best; some here cost from three to five rix-dollars when they can warble an air preceded and followed by a grand flourish as of trumpets. The weavers and shoemakers often bring up many of these birds. It is very pleasing and surprising to hear a young linnet that is well taught by a nightingale. I have one, whose imitations are as perfect as possible. It amuses me throughout the year, but especially when my nightingales are silent.
Linnets may be accustomed to go and come at command, by treating them in their youth, or in the winter, as I have directed for the house-sparrow; but as they are more timid, it is necessary to be more careful.
It is common for a male linnet to pair with a hen canary, and their progeny can scarcely be distinguished from the grey canary. They sing delightfully, and learn different airs with great facility.
It is well known, that among linnets, some are finer warblers than others, and that, as with many other birds, the old ones sing better than the young; on which account, yellow linnets, being the oldest, are the most valued.
THE LESSER REDPOLE
Fringilla Linaria, Linnæus; Le Sizerin, ou Petite Linotte des Vignes, Buffon; Der Flachsfink, Bechstein
In its plumage this bird resembles the linnet; but in its actions and shape it more resembles the siskin. It is five inches and one quarter in length, of which the tail measures two and one quarter; the beak, four lines long, is very sharp and yellow; its shanks, eight lines high, are black; the top of the head is a brilliant crimson; the upper part of the body is dark brown, spotted with white and rust yellow; the rump is rose-coloured; the throat black; the feathers on the under part of the neck and breast are bright rose-coloured, edged with white; the rest of the under part is white. The plumage of the female is lighter; the breast is not rose-coloured, except that when very old it acquires a slight tint, as well as the rump; the upper part of the body is spotted with white and deep brown, and the breast is rather speckled with the same colours. The latter characteristics serve to distinguish the females from young males, that also are without the rose-colour on the breast, but have the rust-coloured and dark brown back of the older birds. The males, confined to the house, lose, at the first moulting, the fine rose-coloured breast, and, at the second, the crimson of the head, which generally changes to a greenish yellow. I have a male bird, the top of whose head became, at the third moulting, of a fine golden yellow, and has retained its brilliancy for six years.
Habitation. – In its wild state the lesser redpole is found in every part of Europe; yet we must consider the north as its native home, Scotland, Sweden, Lapland, Norway, and Greenland. Great flights arrive amongst us at the end of October, and leave us in March and April. In winter, they frequent places planted with alders, the seeds of which they appear very fond of. They are principally found in company with siskins.
In the house, it shows off its beautiful plumage, which, alas! does not retain that beauty long, it is often placed in a pretty cage, but most commonly allowed to range through a room.
Food. – When at liberty, the seed of the alder is what these birds seek most eagerly; but they do not despise the seeds of flax, hemp, and even fir, and many other kinds. Being entirely grain-eating birds, their crop has the power of softening the food before it passes into the stomach.
In the house, if in a cage, they eat poppy, rape, and hemp seed; when at large, the first universal paste.
Breeding. – Occasionally a few stragglers breed with us, but this is rare.
Diseases. – The disorders of this species are the same as those of the siskin; but their feet are oftener diseased, and the toes skin off one after the other. They may be kept from eight to ten years.
Mode of Taking. – In the spring and autumn, the lesser redpoles may be taken in flocks in the area, or barn-floor trap, with a decoy of their own species, or even with a siskin. Many may also be caught with such a decoy on a decoy-bush. They are so silly, or so confiding, that they will even allow themselves to be taken close by the bird-catcher, who is collecting their entrapped companions. This stupidity, or simplicity, is common in all birds that come from the more remote northern parts. Brought up far from man, and out of reach of his pursuit, they know not that fear and distrust which is felt by those that inhabit populous countries. Their call is “peweet” and “crec, creck hewid.”
Attractive Qualities. – The lesser redpole pleases the eye more than the ear; its feeble warbling being only, if I may thus express it, a low continued clicking. It may be taught to draw water more easily than the goldfinch, and it will also learn many other little manœuvres, for it becomes very familiar, and will eat as soon as it is let loose after its capture. The mutual tenderness of the male and female is very pleasing. They are continually caressing each other with their bills, and even do the same to siskins, linnets, goldfinches, and canaries, from which it appears very likely that they would pair with these birds.