TWITE 



565 



Twite From the linnet the twite (so called from its twittering 



(Linota note) may be distinguished by its more slim build, 



flavirostris) relatively longer and distinctly forked tail, and the 



yellow beak from which it takes its Latin name. 



As regards plumage, the cock is at once recognisable by the rose-pink 



patch on the loins, the colouring being elsewhere dull ; the head is 



ashy grey marked with broad dark brown streaks, the back brown 



with darker streaks, the outer webs of the secondary and inner 



primary quills are white, and the under-parts huffish with dark brown 



streaks on the breast. The hen has no rose-pink on the back, while 



m 



HE ROWLAND ' 



young birds are further distinguished by their duller tone of colouring. 

 It should be added that Cannabi7ia flavirostris, Linaria flcwirostris, and 

 Acaiithis flavirostris are alternative names for the twite, or " twitterer." 

 Special interest attaches to this bird on account of the fact that 

 its chief breeding-places are in the British Isles, the only other 

 country where it nests being apparently Norway. According to a 

 writer in the Zoologist for 1906, the twite nests in most parts of the 

 British Isles where moors, mountains, and exposed heathy districts 

 occur, and is by no means restricted, as has been supposed, to the 

 more northern parts. Its special preference appears, however, to be 

 for the neighbourhood of rocky coasts, especially those exposed to 

 the Atlantic, which may account for its breeding so far south as 

 Derbyshire and even Devonshire (where it is recorded to have nested 



