Their Eggs and Nests. ii^ 



shades, brown to purple. They are four, five, and 

 sometimes six in number. — Fig. 1\, plate IV, 



TWITE — {Linota flavirostra ; formerly, L. 

 moiitiuni). 



Mountain Linnet, Twite Finch, Heather Lintie. — 

 A bird seldom, if ever, seen much south of the 

 Humber. It is known to breed in Yorkshire and tlie 

 northern English counties as well as in Scotland, the 

 Hebrides, etc. As its occasional name leads one to infer, 

 it is usually found in the neighbourhood of hill or fell. 

 The nest is built on the ground, among the short 

 benty grass of the hill-side, or the dwarf ling of 

 similar localities, or even among longer heather, and 

 is made of the materials afforded by such herbage,^ 

 and moss, and lined with fibrous roots, wool and hair. 

 The eggs vary from four to six in number, are almost 

 white, with the faintest blue or green tinge, spotted 

 with red, brown or dark purple, with sometimes a 

 few streaks of a lighter red tinge — Fig. \Z, plate IV. 



BULLFINCH— (/>rr//?^/^ Eiiropa^a ; formerly, 

 P. vulgaris^. 



Olph, Alp, Hoop, Red Hoop, Nope. — One of our 

 really handsome birds, and as familiar to many of us 

 as other and even commoner birds, by his frequent 

 occupancy of a cage. " Piping Bullfinches " are not 

 very unusual even in this country. The Bullfinch is 

 also one of those birds who have long been laid under 

 proscription, for the mischief he is assumed to do to 

 the buds of fruit trees. Like as rewards used to be 

 customarily paid in hosts of places out of the Parish 



