SKETCHES OP EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 261 



both excellently drawn. Though this species is strictly a native of 

 the Alpine districts of continental Europe, several specimens have 

 been taken in England, and that not in our rocky provinces, but at or 

 near Cambridge, in the midst of a low flat tract of country, little 

 adapted, one would suppose, for the sojourn of a bird whose congenial 

 residence is among the bold rocks and cliffs of the Tyrol, the holes 

 and fissures of which afford it a place of nidification. Its eggs, like 

 those of our Common Accentor, (or Hedge Sparrow), are greenish- 

 blue. The casual visit to our island of birds not possessing powers of 

 rapid flight, birds not strictly migratory in their habits, and natives of 

 a distinct locality, is very remarkable, and not easily accounted for. 

 In the present instance, we have a bird peculiar to central and south- 

 ern Europe finding its way westward to our island, led thither by 

 some train of circumstances which we cannot well comprehend. Mr. 

 Selby figured a specimen killed in the garden of King's College, 

 Cambridge, and now in the museum of the Rev. Dr. Thackery ; but 

 he does not inform us at what part of the year it was obtained, nor 

 does Mr. Gould advert to this important point. 



Twite, Linaria montana, Ray. — Grosbec a gorge rouge, Fr. — 

 Arktische fink, G. The plate represents a figure of this pretty little 

 bird, chastely drawn, true and natural. Small birds, by the way, are 

 Mr. Gould's forte. — " The Twite, though possessing a longer tail 

 than the Linnet, has a more delicate contour of body, and is, as we 

 think, a more diminutive bird. In this respect our opinion is not in 

 accordance with that of Mr. Selby, who states ' it is rather larger 

 than the Common Linnet, being bulkier in the body and having a 

 longer tail.' " The habits and manners of this bird resemble those of 

 the Common Linnet, which bird it closely resembles in general ap- 

 pearance. " It is abundantly dispersed over the northern portions of 

 Europe, even within the regions of the arctic circle. It also passes 

 the summer, but in smaller numbers, on the uplands of Scotland, the 

 Western, Orkney, and Shetland Islands." Mr. Selby says that it 

 breeds in these places, its nest being built " amid the tops of the 

 tallest Heath, lined with wool, fibres of root, and the finer parts of 

 the Heath." The eggs, five in number, are of a pale bluish-green 

 colour, spotted with pale orange brown. — In autumn it leaves the 

 mountains of the Scottish main- land and isles, and, joined by flocks 

 from Norway, Sweden, &c. joins the Common Linnet and travels 

 southward. Taken in company with this bird, by the London bird- 

 catchers, it is easily distinguished from the Linnet by its note, expres- 

 sive of the word twite, whence its English name. 



