Linnet
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Linnet. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a common song bird of the finch or sparrow family. It is native to Europe and the adjacent regions of Asia and Africa. It is a migratory bird. In the spring, when it makes its appearance in England, the head and breast of the male are of a bright crimson. As autumn approaches the plumage becomes brown streaked and dull. In this respect the linnet is much like our bobolink, of which, indeed, it is a relative. The first syllable of the name is the lin of linen, which also appears in lint. The Scotch call it the lintie and the lintwhite, no doubt because it is fond of linseed. The habits of the bird are much like those of the American goldfinch. The linnet is much prized as a cage bird. It is sociable and friendly, and has a clear, flute-like note. It requires much the same food and care as a canary. The people of the Black Forest in Germany are skilled in breeding linnets and in teaching them to sing.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a very common and wellasions, known song-bird, frequenting all Europe S. of 64°, and in Asia extending to , and da Turkestan. It is a winter visitor to uccess Here Egypt and Abyssinia, and is found in great numbers in Barbary, the Canaries, and Madeira. In autumn and winter the Tran Ber plumage is brown; in the breeding season the breast and head of both sexes 180 becomes a crimson-red, varying only in degree. The (later) generic and specific names have reference to the fond ness of the bird for the seeds of flax and hemp. It is popularly known, according to its sex and the season of the year, as the red, gray, or brown linnet.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The bird Aiton's described in 1910 is still with us, but its fortunes and its name have shifted. Once trapped by the thousand for the cage trade Aiton's praises, the linnet has been protected in Britain since the Protection of Birds Act 1954, and keeping one caught from the wild is now illegal; meanwhile the loss of weed seeds to modern arable farming cut the British breeding population by more than half after 1970, and the species now sits on the UK's red list of birds of conservation concern. Two details in the old accounts have not survived: Aiton's calls the linnet a relative of "our bobolink", but the bobolink belongs to the American blackbird family, not the finches, and Collier's claim that the crimson breast and crown appear in "both sexes" is wrong, as only the male reddens. Taxonomists have moved it about too, from Linota and Carduelis cannabina to the currently accepted Linaria cannabina.
Written for this edition, 2026.