PERCHING BIRDS, 121 
wool, and thickly lined with the snowy down of the 
willow catkins; this forms a beautiful bed for the eggs, 
which are of a bluish green, speckled with orange- brown 
chiefly at the larger end, and are both smaller in size 
and deeper in the ground colour than any of the other 
species. Like the former species, they feed on the seeds 
of the thistle, dandelion, &c. 
The Mountain Linnet or Twite (F. montium, Gmel.) 
is the last of the family I have met with, for I am not 
aware that the mealy redpoll has occurred with us. The 
twite is abundant on our heathy grounds, where it regu- 
larly breeds. The nest is generally placed in a tuft of 
heather, but I have taken one out of a furze-bush. It 
is composed of small roots and sprigs of heather, with 
here and there a dry bent, the whole being interwoven 
with moss, and lined with hair mingled with a few 
feathers. The eggs are numerous, sometimes as many 
as seven, the ground-colour being pale greenish white, 
with small dashes of light yellow-brown, and spots of 
purplish-brown, chiefly at the larger end. 
When perching on the tall heather, or gorse, it keeps 
uttering a single note resembling its name, “twite,” but 
when it flies off this is rapidly repeated in a twittering 
manner. 
Our well-wooded district is a favourite one with the 
Bullfinch (Pyrrhula vulgaris), and its conspicuously 
coloured and portly form is consequently very common. 
Its provincial name with us is “Pick-a-bud;” and 
assuredly it is not undeserved, for it makes sad havoc in 
the gardens amongst the fruit trees in spring time. I 
am not inclined to agree with those who consider that 
the bullfinch and titmice destroy only those buds which 
contain a grub, for I have seen branches of gooseberry, 
