14 



British Birds. 



The Brows Linnet. 



breast and no red cap, the head 

 being coloured like the back. It 

 is also easily recognised by its 

 yellow hill. The Twite is a 

 resident bird with us, but breeds 

 only on the moorlands ot cenain 

 parts of Ireland, Scotland, and 

 the northern counties of Eng- 

 land, as far south as some ot 

 the Midlands. In winter it 

 migrates southwards and is 

 seen in flocks of considerable 

 size near the coasts, where the 

 birds feed on seeds of aquatic 

 plants, and keep up a continued and musical twittering as they feed. The call-note 

 resembles that of a Redpoll or Siskin, being a somewhat harsh 'eaglet.' The nest 

 is cup-shaped and made of moss with a few heather twigs and is lined with rootlets 

 or feathers and down. The eggs are from four to six in number, and are of the 

 usual Linnet type, being light blue with red or purple spots and lines. 



The Brown Linnet (Cannabina cannahina) is easily recognised from its allies 

 by the crimson forehead and breast of the male, but more especially by the 

 white on the upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers, which are edged with white. 

 The young birds have the breast spotted with brown, and in winter the plumage 

 of the adults is concealed bj' broad brown margins to the feathers, which gain 

 their full beauty in spring by the abrasion and falling off of these brown edgings. 



The Linnet is found breeding over the greater part of the British Islands, and in 

 u'inter and spring considerable accessions to the number of our resident birds take 

 place b\- the immigration of birds from the Continent; these individuals are 

 generally brighter in colour than our resident birds. The food of the Linnet consists 

 almost entirely of seeds of some kind, and the birds distribute themselves over the 

 stubbles and fallow ground in the autumn, when I have seen large flocks of them, in 

 September, in the coast-lands in the south of England. The nest is a neat cup, made 

 of moss with a few twigs, and lined with horse-hair. It is generally to be looked for 

 in gorse or heather, and the eggs are from four to six in number, bluish with spots and 

 streaks of purplish-brown. 



The Lesser Redpoll [Cannabina rufescens). This is a smaller bird than the 

 Linnet or the Twite, and is brown, with a crimson cap, breast, and rump. It is 

 exclusively a species of Western Europe, and nests in nearly every part of the 

 United Kingdom, excepting the south-western counties of England ; in the south ol 

 England it appears to be spreading, as it nests not unfrequently now m Middlesex, 

 Surrey and Kent. On the Continent it nests in France, Belgium, Holland, 

 and Western Germany, as well as in the Alps of Italy, Savoy, and Styria. In 



