The Linnet 85 



Family^FRlXGlLLID.E. SuhJamily^I'RIXGILLLWF. 



Thf: Linnet. 



.■Icdiit/ns cniniahinit, LiNN. 



BREEDS tlirougliotit Europe south of lat. 64° iu Scandiuavia, and of lat. 59° 

 iu East Russia ; it is also resident in North-west Africa, the Canaries, and 

 Madeira ; eastward it extends to Turkestan. In Persia and North India 

 a representative race replaces it, in which the general plumage is more ashy, and 

 the breast of the male more scarlet in colouring. 



Excepting in the mountainous parts of Scotland, where it appears to be replaced 

 by the Twite, the Linnet is pretty generally distributed throughout Great Britain ; 

 it has, however, been rarely seen in the Shetland Isles. 



The male Linnet in breeding plumage has a glossy crimson patch from the 

 base of the upper mandible to the centre of the crown ; remainder of head, nape, 

 and sides of neck brown, with an ashy suffusion and darker mottling ; back and 

 wing-coverts ruddy golden-brown, broadlj^ centred with dark brown ; upper tail- 

 coverts dark brown, with broad buffish-white borders ; tail-feathers black, the outer 

 web narrow!}', and the inner web broadly bordered with white ; flight feathers 

 blackish, the primaries with a conspicuous white stripe on the outer webs, and 

 with a broad whitish-ash border along a great part of the inner webs ; secondaries 

 bordered, especially along the outer webs, with ruddy golden-brown ; lores, a streak 

 above and another below the eye, bufhsh ; ear- coverts and sides of face greyish ; 

 chin and throat buffish-white, with small brown streaks ; throat and breast crimson, 

 somewhat suffused with chestnut in j^oungish birds ; bell}^ buffish-white ; flanks 

 tawny brown, with darker centres to the feathers, and sometimes slightly tinted 

 with rose-reddish ; beak greyish horn-brown, paler at the base of the lower man- 

 dible ; feet brown ; iris hazel. In captivity all crimson disappears from the plumage, 

 and both beak and feet become paler and flesh-tinted. 



The female differs in the absence of all crimson colouring ; the entire upper 

 surface browner, with blackish centres to the feathers, the much more prominent 

 streaking of the under surface, the decidedly broader crown and base of beak, and 

 the considerably narrower white outer margins to the primaries and tail feathers. 

 It also differs remarkably in the form of the wings the distinctions being precisely 



