PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 75 



the ground under stones, sods, etc., grass, walls, peat-stacks, banks of streams, 

 ledges and crevices of sea-cliffs, rabbit burrows, haystacks (Saxby, B. of Shetland). 

 Nest : roots, grass, stalks, moss, twigs, lined with hair, wool, fur, and feathers. 

 (PI. 13.) It is constructed by both sexes (Saxby, op. cit. ; Harvie-Brown, Fauna 

 N.-W. Highlands). The eggs, usually 4-6, rarely 7, in number, are bluer as a 

 rule than those of the linnet, and more boldly marked with a few streaks of very 

 dark red-brown. (PL B.) Average size of 100 eggs, '66 x -49 in. [16'9 x 12'6 mm.]. 

 Laying begins in May. Which sex incubates not recorded. Period of incubation not 

 recorded. Two broods (R. Gray, B. of the West of Scotland). [F. c. R. j. F. B. K.] 



5. Food. Seeds. The young are fed with regurgitated seeds (Zander, Vogel 

 Mecklenburgs). Saxby implies that they are fed by both parents. [F. B. K.] 



6. Song Period. Uncertain. 



LINNET [Linota canndbina (Linnaeus). Lintie, brown-linnet, whin-linnet, 

 redbreasted-linnet, red-linnet, robin-linnet, thorn-linnet, furze-linnet, 

 heather-lintie, bent-linnet, blood-linnet, rose-Untie, gorse-bird. French, 

 linotte ; German, Blut-hanfling]. 



1. Description. Differs from both the redpolls and twite in having, each 

 tail feather margined with white, except the two middle, which have light-brown 

 edges. The outer webs of the inner primaries are also white, the beak horn-grey. 

 In summer plumage the male has crimson on the crown, forehead, and breast, its 

 general coloration being brown and grey, with chestnut on the mantle. From 

 autumn to spring the crimson makes way for grey. Length 5| in. [140 mm.]. 

 (PL 11.) The female lacks the crimson and is more striated. The young are still 

 more striated, and develop during the immature stage broad brown tips to the 

 primaries, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. It is widely distributed throughout Europe below 

 the 60th parallel, and in Scandinavia up to 64 N. lat., but in the Mediter- 

 ranean basin, and in Siberia as far as the Altai Mountains, it is replaced by local 

 races. In the British Isles it breeds nearly everywhere where waste lands exist, 

 but is not found in Scotland at the higher levels, and becomes local and uncommon 

 towards the north-west of that country and in the outlying islands. [A. L. T.] 



3. Migration. It is resident as a species in most parts of the British Isles, 

 but is only a summer visitor to some. There is a considerable southward emigration 

 in autumn, at which season also a large number of birds from the Continent arrive 

 on our east coast. It is noticed as an immigrant on the south and other coasts 



