71 



GENUS LINOTA. 

 LINNET. 



LiNOTA CANNABINA (Liiiiigeus). 



Local Names — G}-ei) Linnet, Brown Linnet, Redeap, 

 Whinfinch, Gorse-cock, Paywee. 



Eesident, partially migratory in winter, and moving 

 about at that season in large flocks over the open 

 comitry in search of food. It is most plentiful on the 

 coast, and from the shores of Walney to the neighbour- 

 hood of Liverpool it breeds commonly in the furze and 

 low stick-hedges which characterize this section of the 

 county. In many inland districts, too, it is numerous, 

 affecting there the low mosses, or the plantations of 

 whin-bushes which skirt the bases of the moorlands. 

 Mr. C. E. Reade says it breeds plentifully on the mosses 

 near Urmston, and according to the Report of the Bury 

 Nat. Hist. Society (1871) it is found the year through 

 in that district, being very common in the stubble-fields 

 in winter. Mr. John Hardy informs me that it is 

 universally distributed in the Manchester neighbour- 

 hood, breeding in hedges — or if in furze-bushes, gener- 

 ally near hedges — and at that time of the year being 

 quite solitar}^ On the moors from Rochdale through 

 Bacup to Cliviger it still occurs, though in diminished 

 numbers. Dr. Skaife wrote of it in 1838 {Mckj. of Nat. 

 Hist., 1838) as very common near Blackburn, but Mr. 

 E. J. Howard only considers it moderately so now, and 

 it is curious that it is entirely absent from the Clitheroe 

 district at all seasons. It is common near Chipping, 

 Goosnargh, and St. Michael's-on-Wyre, and at the last- 



