The House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), ii., 105.
The bold, pert, quarrelsome bird, indifferent alike to our kindness and our enmity, which nevertheless one is glad to see feeding on the crumbs considerately thrown to it from the parlour breakfast–table.
The Greenfinch (Coccothraustes chloris), ii., 106.
Common in cultivated fields and gardens. Song sweet but monotonous.
The Common Linnet (Linaria cannabina), ii., 110.
Abundant everywhere on heaths and in hedgerows. Many are kept in cages for the beauty of the song. Not only among mankind, it would seem, does a fine voice sometimes prove the road to ruin.
The Less Red–pole (Linaria minor), ii., 111.
This bird breeds in Marple Wood, Cotterill Clough, and similar places. The nest, rather hard to discover, is round, the size of a racket–ball, and composed of fibrous roots and the hemp–like bark of the dead nettle–stalks of the previous year, with which the little architect ties them together, the inside being lined with the pappus or down of the coltsfoot seed. It is generally placed in high hedges or in the boughs of fir–trees.
The Bullfinch (Loxia Pyrrhula), ii., 114.