The Linnets* (Concert 



IN autumn the linnets flock together, and go dipping 

 across the fields with sharp, twittering calls, searching 

 for seeds, in the evening gathering on a hedge to sing in 

 chorus before going to roost. 



This evensong of the linnets is heard until the spring, 

 when the flocks break up although the linnets con- 

 tinue to keep more or less in company in their favourite 

 nesting-place, a furze-covered common. We have a 

 record of the finding of more than one hundred of their 

 nests one afternoon on a linnet-favoured golf-course. 



In nesting days, the cock linnet's head becomes 

 touched with crimson, and his little breast takes on a 

 lovely carmine hue, though different birds vary much 

 in colouring. In the nest are four or five dainty 

 bluish- white eggs, speckled with reddish brown. 



We love best to watch the linnets on a hot summer 

 afternoon, when they come up from the great valleys 

 of the South Downs to drink at a dew-pond on the 

 brow of the hill. In small parties they drift in the 

 livelong afternoon, twenty perhaps drinking together 

 and always their coming is heralded by the eager, 

 sweet linnet twitter, and never does any linnet fly 

 away after sipping refreshment without a note of 

 thanksgiving. 



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