FOR CAGES AND A VI ARIES, 129 



THE LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. See 

 under Gulls. 



THE LESSER GOD WIT. See Godwit (Black- 

 tailed). 



THE LESSER REDPOLL. See under Linnets. 



THE LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. See 

 under Woodpeckers. 



THE LESSER WHITETHROAT. .S^^^ under 

 Whitethroats. 



THE LINNETS AND REDPOLLS. 

 The Brown Linnet. See Common Linnet. 



The Common Linnet. 



Curiously enough, this bird has been, and still is, the 

 subject of not a little misconception owing to the changes 

 of colour to which the male is subject. In his wild state 

 he has, when adult, a red forehead and a rosy-red breast, 

 when he is termed the Red Linnet and the Greater Redpoll; 

 these characteristics he loses in the house after his first 

 moult there, and is then known as the Brown Linnet ; and 

 when he is young, either indoors or out, he resembles 

 his mother, and is consequently called the Grey Linnet, 

 for while the back of the adult male is a fine chestnut- 

 brown colour, that of the female is distinctly grey, and 

 she is also much more spotted on the breast, which is 

 greyish-white, while that of the house-moulted male has a 

 buff or yellowish tinge. 



