LINNET. MEALY REDPOLL. .53 



Genus— LINOTA. 

 LINOTA CANNABINA— Linnet. 



And the gay Linnet, and the airy Thrush, 

 Responsive whistle from the hawthorn bush. 



Mary Howett. 



Some humble heart is sore and sick with grief, 

 And straight thou comest with thy gentle song, 

 To wile the sufferer from his hate or wrong. 

 By bringing nature's love to his relief. 



Linnet, wild Linnet ! 



Robert Nicoll. 



This active lively bird is abundant in Herefordshire. The 

 Linnets in the autumn and winter months congregate together very 

 merrily. " Everyone in the country," says Sir William Jardine, 

 " towards the close of a fine winter evening, must often have 

 remarked the Linnets perched on the summit of some bare tree, 

 pluming themselves in the last rays of the sun, chirruping the 

 commencement of their evening song, then bursting simultaneously 

 into one general chorus ; again resuming their single strains, and 

 again joining, as if happy and rejoicing at the termination of their 

 day's employment." In spring they resort in pairs by preference 

 to the blooming furze bushes on the wild common. 



Nor are the Linnets, o'er the flowering furze 

 Pour'd out profusely, silent. 



Thomson— Spring. 



The Linnet gets its scientific name from the preference it 

 shows to the seeds of the flax, limim, and hemp, cannabis. 



LINOTA LINARIA— Mealy Redpoll. 



This bird is not abundant in Herefordshire, but it does often 

 occur, and probably is still more often overlooked. 



