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CHAPTER XVII. 



LINNETS AND CROSSBILLS THE BROWN, GREEN, AND MOUNTAIN 



LINNE IS LESSER AND MEALY REDPOLES COMMON AND 



PARROT CROSSBILLS. 



nnHE BROWN LINNET (Linaria canabind), variously 

 _1_ called the Grey, Eose, or Whin Linnet, the Greater 

 Redpole, Lintie, or Lintwhite. 



The genus Linaria of the Passerine birds contains four 

 British species, of which the above is the largest and most 

 common. Its length is about five inches and a quarter ; 

 and the prevailing colours of its plumage are reddish brown 

 and grey. But these vary greatly, according to sex, age, 

 and season. Hence the variety of names given to the bird, 

 which is generally distributed throughout Britain, and is 

 found at all seasons by those who look for it. In sum- 

 mer it is chiefly in the hilly and mountainous parts, or 

 generally where there are thickets of broom, whin, or sloe- 

 bushes, or even where the herbage is rank, or the heather 

 attains an unusual size, on the slopes of craggy braes and 

 glens. 



Through leafy groves the cushat roves, 

 The path of man to shun it, 



The hazel bush o'erhangs the Thrush, 

 The spreading thorn the Linnet, 



sings Burns ; and an anonymous poet, quoted by Neville 

 Wood, tells us that 



The Lintie on the heathery brae 



(Where lies the nest among the ferns), 



Begins to lilt at break o' day, 



And at the gloamin' hails the sterns ; 



or, as we should say in England, and in plain prose, ' hails 

 the stars in the twilight of evening.' 



