Among the earliest songsters of spring, occasionally tuning his voice before the arrival of the multitudinous choir, is the Crimson Finch or American Linnet (Fringilla purpurea).

But the Linnet does not persevere like the Song-Sparrow, after he has once commenced.

The Linnet is an exception to this general habit of the singing-birds, and, in company with the Warbling Fly-catchers, he is commonly high up in an elm or some other tall tree, and almost entirely out of sight, when exercising himself in song.

On account of the infrequency of these occasions, it is seldom we have an opportunity to witness a full exhibition of the musical powers of the Linnet.

The male American Linnet is crimson on the head, neck, and throat, dusky on the upper part of its body, and beneath somewhat straw-colored.

The lark's, the linnet's chirping lays 20 To his ill-judging ears are fine; And nightingales are all divine.

The very spirit of Celtic poetry is seen in these lines from The Lake Isle of Innisfree: "And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet's wings.

So the pleased Linnet in the moss-wove nest, Waked into life beneath its parent's breast, 415 Chirps in the gaping shell, bursts forth erelong, Shakes its new plumes, and tries its tender song.

jilguero, m., linnet.

Chaunt birds in everie bush, The blackbird and the Thrush, The chirping Nightingale, The Mavis and Wagtaile, The Linnet and the Larke, Oh how they begin, harke, harke.

But one day I took a thick cudgel, and threw it with all my strength so luckily at a linnet that I knocked him down, and seizing him by the neck with both my hands, ran with him in triumph to my nurse.

This linnet, as near as I can remember, seemed to be somewhat larger than an English swan.

The captive linnet which enthral?

But the biographer contradicted his own beautiful portrait by telling how poor Pierre sang once too well to a married woman, whose husband took him, jailed him, and pierced his linnet tongue.

Their natural colour is grey, which merges into green beneath, almost resembling the colours of the linnet; but by means of domestication, climate, and being bred with other birds, canaries may now be met with of a great variety of colours.

[Illustration: THE LINNET.

I know the spot the bees love best, And where the linnet has built her nest.

In vain along the vale The linnet, and the blackbird, The mournful nightingale; "The Miller hears and sees not, Thinking of his son; His toppling wheel is silent; His grinding done.

The child had the greatest fondness for reading, her first book, a Linnet's Life, being tenderly cared for all her days.

there, behind those flower-pots, I can laugh freely and merrilythere I can let the little linnet feed from my hand, and I can say to myself that with all my troubles, with all my sorrows, I am still happier than the poor little singer in his cage.

Laharpe tête-à-tête with a Princess who visits the kitchen and with a linnet whichhappy birdis privileged to bite her fingers.

the green garlands on the little window down there, the potted flowers offer a secret retreatthe little linnet in his cage is impatient for the return of his beautiful and benign mistress.

p. 128, and 'The Green Linnet', vol.

Through all the mysteries of May, Initiate, I take my way Sure as the blithest lark or linnet To touch the pulsing soul within it

And beautiful the hushing of the linnet in her nest, With her young beneath her wings, and the sunset on her breast: While hid among the flowers, where the dreamy bee is flitting, Singing unto its own glad heart, the poet child is sitting.