LINARIA CANABINA. 411 



The Brown Linnet. 



(Linaria Canabina.) Sw. (Fringilla Canabina.) Linn. 



" And the women sang 

 Between the rougher voices of the men. 

 Like linnets in the pauses of the wind." — Tennyson. 



" Can lav'rocks at the dawning day, 

 Can Unties chirming frae the spray, 

 Or toddlin' burns that smoothly play 



O'er gowden beds, 

 Compare wi' birks o' Invermay ? 

 But now they're dead." — Fergusson. 



This common little bird perplexed our early ornithologists, 

 who considered it two species — the summer and winter dress of 

 the male being so different. In winter it was the brown or grey 

 lintie ; in summer, when it assumed its red forehead and rose- 

 tinted breast, it was the rose-lintie, the very bill changing from 

 dusky to bluish-brown — as the cheek of an apple or a peach, or 

 even of a girl, becomes richer by the influence of the sun or 

 love. Be that as it may, the male — like man himself — puts on 

 a " brawer" dress to please his little brown wife. I inspected 

 one shot on June 5th. The rose colour was on each side of the 

 breast ; a pale yellowish streak down the centre, with a white 

 crescent patch under the throat ; forehead also rich rose-red. I 

 saw one with this plumage in a cage in March 1889 ; it was 

 caught on February 26th, and began to sing on the 1st of April. 

 In this dress it is called the greater redpoll. Bewick, in his 

 " British Birds," holds that the grey linnet is different from the 

 brown or greater redpoll, as it has been caught in its brilliant 

 plumage, and though kept for years in a cage never again 

 regained its red plumage after the first moult. He may be 

 right, but I knew of a brown linnet which was kept for thirteen 

 years in a cage, and at each moult renewed its rose-tinted 

 plumage. It is called Untie from feeding on the seeds oiflax or 

 lint, which used to be much grown in Scotland. Fergusson, in 

 his disgust at the way the "King's birthday was held in 

 Edinburgh," of his muse says — 



*' She'll rather to the fields resort, 

 Whare music gars the day seem short, 

 Whare doggies play, and lambies sport 



On gowany braes ; 

 Whare peerless Fancy hauds her court, 

 And tunes her lays." 



