LINNET. 107 
two extreme forms is so slight that the Eastern form is scarcely deserving 
of even subspecific rank. 
The Common, Brown, or Red Linnet, or Lintie, as it is variously called, 
is one of our best-known species, and, from its tame disposition and 
pleasing song, is also one of our most popular cage-birds. In winter (in 
fact throughout the year, the few months of the breeding-season excepted) 
it may be seen in almost every rural district, and not unfrequently visits 
the busy metropolis, where it is sometimes seen in the parks. The Linnet 
appears to be decreasing in numbers in our islands, partly in consequence of 
the immense numbers netted by the bird-catchers, and partly on account 
of the reclamation of land, by which its favourite haunts are destroyed. 
It is most abundant in the less cultivated districts, on commons, especially 
in gorse-coverts, and on the half-tilled lands near the moors. In winter it 
is more widely dispersed, and frequents grass-fields and stubbles, often 
coming into gardens, where a few pairs remain during the summevr. 
The Common Linnet is a gregarious bird, and even in the breeding- 
season is more or less sociable. In the boisterous month of March, when 
winter seems struggling for supremacy with spring, the Linnet pairs, the 
large flocks break up, and most of the birds retire to the wilder districts to 
breed. The Linnet’s song is heard most frequently at this season; and 
very often the males of a flock will warble in chorus from some tree-top, 
fillimg the air for some distance around with melody. Perhaps the song 
of the Linnet is heard to bést advantage when the flocks are dispersed, and 
each pair is engaged in domestic duties on the breezy uplands. Here, it 
may be in some dense mass of furze bushes, a low warbling song may be 
heard, not unlike that of the Swallow, proceeding from a cock Linnet 
sitting on the topmost spray of a gorse bush serenading his mate. When 
singing he is very shy, and usually drops into the cover when disturbed. 
The song is not very loud, part of it is somewhat harsh, but it is varied 
by those low melodious notes which make this species so popular with the 
bird-fancier. It is only in the pairing-season that the bird sings fre- 
quently, and when the eggs are laid he seems too busy in feeding his mate 
to devote much of his time to music. The common call-note of the 
Linnet isa musical twit, twit, rapidly repeated ; that of one sex to the other 
is intermediate between the similar notes of the Canary and the Goldfinch, 
and might be represented by the word tyew-ee. 
The great breeding-grounds of the Linnet are on the rough lands which 
lie between the moors and the well-cultivated districts. It is almost a 
mountain-bird, but not so much so as the Twite. In the lowlands it shows 
a decided preference for gorse-thickets, where its nest is most frequently 
found. Other favourite situations are in masses of broom or in a rugged 
sloe-tree, and sometimes in the branches of tall heather or amongst 
brambles and briars. In more low-lying districts the bird will sometimes 
