LINNET 563 



greyish white, tinged on the throat and breast with greenish yellow, 

 and streaked with dusky black. A generally duller and browner hue 

 distinguishes young birds from their female parents. 



The siskin, which takes its name from its cry (Swedish siske, a 

 chirper), is essentially a northern finch, breeding in Scandinavia as far 

 north as the head of the Baltic, whence the range gradually southerns 

 to about latitude 58" in the Urals, to the eastward of which it is 

 continued across Siberia to Japan. In winter the siskin visits southern 

 Europe, and it is at this season that it is most commonly seen in 

 England, although it is recorded to have nested in several counties, 

 including ^Middlesex and Sussex. Much the same may be said 

 with regard to Ireland ; but in Scotland the species breeds regularly, 

 frequenting for this purpose, as in Scandinavia, pine-forests, where 

 it builds at a considerable height above the ground, in such a position 

 that the nest is difficult to detect. Both nest and eggs are of the 

 type of those of the goldfinch, the latter being, in fact, indistinguish- 

 able from those of that bird. 



Of the citril finch {Ch. citrinelld)^ which breeds in central Europe, 

 a specimen was taken in Norfolk in 1904. 



Linnet That excellent songster, the linnet — which takes its 



(Linotaeannabina). English and its generic name from linum (flax), and 

 its specific title from cannabis (hemp) — is one of 

 those birds which suffer from a plurality of scientific designations, 

 being variously described as Linaria cannabina, Acanthis caujiabina, 

 and Cannahina cannabina, in addition to the title here employed, 

 which is the one at present used in the galleries of the Natural 

 History Museum. Linnets and their immediate relatives have the 

 beak shorter and thicker than in siskins and goldfinches, and lack 

 yellow in their colouring, which frequently includes red on the head 

 and sometimes also elsewhere, at any rate during the breeding- 

 season. 



A truly handsome bird is the cock-linnet at that season, when the 

 forehead and centre of the breast are crimson, the head and neck 

 ashy grey, the back, wing-coverts, and flanks chestnut, the upper tail- 

 coverts black and white, the outer webs of the feathers of the tail 

 white, and the under-parts dull white with inconspicuous greyish- 

 brown streaks. After the autumn moult the crimson is veiled by the 

 broad grey edges of the feathers, and it is not till these are rubbed off 

 that the glories of the spring-plumage reappear. In young birds and 

 hens the head and neck are distinctly striped with dusky brown. 



