44 THE BIRDS OF DEVONSHIRE. 



autumn. The song of the male is usually delivered 

 from a spray of hawthorn or a furzetop. 



LESSER REDFOLL.—Linofa rnfescens, (Vieill). 



A WINTER visitant, plentiful about Exeter in autumn, 

 and of fairly general distribution at that season, 

 occasionally lingering into the summer. The Rev. 

 Prebendary Bassett has observed the Lesser Redpoll 

 near Dulverton, in June, and in July^ 1879, the 

 Editor observed an old Redpoll feeding a newly 

 fledged nestling on the branch of an ash, nearLynton. 



TWITE.— Linota flavlrostris, (Liun). 

 A RARE autumn and winter visitant to our salt 

 marshes. The Rev. Murray A. Mathew has shot 

 specimens close to Barnstaple, and has also met with 

 it on high ground in North Devon. There is no 

 satisfactory evidence of its visiting the South of the 

 County, though it may be conjectured that it some- 

 times strays westward, into the parts of the county 

 bordering on the English Channel. 



BULLFINCH.— P//yr A »/« ewopona, Vieill. 

 A COMMON resident in our woods, both in North and 

 South Devon, much persecuted on account of its 

 destructiveness to buds, though subsisting during 

 the greater part of the year, on the seeds of the 

 Plantain and other weeds, berries of Privet, and 

 other wild fruit. Varieties of plumage occur and a 

 black specimen, formerly in Montagu's collection, 

 exists in the British Museum. 



