LINNET 427 



The nests are simple affairs, of rather loose construction, composed of 

 plant stems and fibers of various kinds, and often lined with horsehair. 

 A typical nest measured externally 4 inches in diameter and 2^/^ inches 

 deep. Four is probably the usual complement of eg^gs, although we found 

 one nest with 5 eggs and another held but 2 young birds. The nesting 

 season probably begins in April, as on May 26, 1915, some young of the 

 year were already out of the nest. Two days later a set of fresh eggs 

 was seen. 



A rather unusual case was that of partnership nesting, noted at Dudley, 

 6 miles east of Coulterville, on July 14, 1920, where two nests had been 

 built on one beam inside a barn. The nests were placed so close to one 

 another that the constituent materials were interwoven on the adjacent 

 sides. The centers of the two nests were but 4^/^ inches apart. Each nest 

 contained 4 fresh eggs, and so far as could be seen the householders were 

 deporting themselves with model comity. 



Linnets seem to find enough forage in the lowlands to sustain them 

 throughout the year, as they do not ordinarily invade the high mountains 

 in late summer and fall after the manner of some insect-eating birds. A 

 probably casual occurrence is that in the vicinity of Le Conte Lodge in 

 Yosemite Valley, August 19, 1917 (Mailliard, 1918, p. 15). Those linnets 

 which summer on the Mono Lake side of the mountains probably leave 

 that region in the winter season. Our earliest and latest records of birds 

 actually observed there are, respectively, May 21 (1916) and September 20 

 (1915), both near the shore of Mono Lake. One of the surprising dis- 

 coveries made on Paoha Island in Mono Lake was a colony of about 30 

 linnets which was established there for the summer at the time of Mr. 

 Dixon's visit on May 27, 1916. Nests were seen in and about the old 

 buildings on the island. 



Several linnets shot on the Dudley Ranch, along Smith Creek east of 

 Coulterville, on July 23, 1920, had been eating the then green and stickj^ 

 fruits of the mountain lilac (Ceanothus in-tegerrimus). A week or two 

 later, as the apples in the ranch orchard began to ripen, linnets, young 

 and old, congregated there. The birds were expert at keeping quiet amid 

 the thick foliage, where they were taking generous toll of the fruit ; the 

 gullets of those that were shot were full of ' apple sauce. ' Shooting seemed 

 to avail little against the tide of incoming birds, which seemed to sense 

 the feast from afar. Those persons who decry the killing of birds on the 

 plea that they are, at least part of the year, in one locality or another, 

 of economic importance (by destroying weed seeds, in the case of the 

 linnet) should put themselves in the place of the mountain rancher at 

 harvest time, when hungry young birds continually pour in from the 

 surrounding wild lands and fatten on his crops. 



