1 68 Among the Birds in Northei'n Shires. 



more frequent in wilder localities. In winter it 

 sometimes visits the farmyards, and we have noticed 

 it mingled with flocks of Lesser Redpoles on the 

 stubbles and clover fields in late autumn. The 

 Linnet, with its close allies the Twite and the 

 Lesser Redpole, are familiar winter visitors to the 

 fields, wandering about in flocks, each usually com- 

 posed of a single species. As we have already seen, 

 the Twite is a common bird in summer upon the 

 moors; in autumn it leaves them in companies for 

 the fields. In its habits the Linnet is very similar. 

 All the winter through large flocks — sometimes 

 numbering many hundreds of birds — resort to cer- 

 tain weed-grown pastures and stubbles, where they 

 spend most of the day upon the ground in never- 

 ending quest of tiny seeds. If alarmed, they rise 

 somewhat in straggling order, but quickly bunch 

 together and resort to some tree-top, from which 

 they again descend in scattered numbers. Their 

 twittering chorus whilst in the trees is very remark- 

 able, and the observer will note that this becomes 

 much more musical and prolonged as the spring 

 approaches. The birds then quit the fields and 

 retire to the higher ground gorse coverts and roughs 

 near the moors where they breed. The Lesser 

 Redpole, to our mind, is the most charming of the 

 three. It is, of course, most numerous on our York- 

 shire and Derbyshire farms during winter, when it 



