152 OUR IRISH SONG BIRDS. 



utters the usual linnet call-note, " Chottuck, chottuck ; " 

 or, as the London bird-catchers write it, "tollick, tollick," 

 to which it usually adds a prolonged " chee." Another 

 note frequently uttered gives it the name " Henri." In 

 some parts of France, it has also been interpreted as 

 " me-ik ;" but the " chottock, chottock, chee," is, in my 

 humble judgment, its most characteristic performance. 

 The flight is strong and light, and the bird wheels round 

 with great rapidity in the air, and seems to dart down 

 from the clouds into the topmost branches of a tree. 



Mr. Johns is of opinion that the habits of the Redpoll 

 and the Siskin are almost identical ; that their haunts 

 and their habits are so much alike that a description of 

 either bird would serve equally well for the other, colour 

 alone excepted. I am not well acquainted with the 

 habits of the Siskin, a most rare bird in most parts of 

 the country. It seems to me, however, not to be as 

 strong on the wing, nor as lively a bird, as the merry, 

 confiding little Redpoll. 



The nest of the Redpoll is placed in bushes or in trees, 

 such as the willow and the alder, and is made of dry 

 grass, moss, or weeds, " with down from the catkin of the 

 willow as lining." The eggs, four or five in number, are 

 a bluish- or greenish-white, with spots of reddish-brown. 



