36 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



grate through Holland into Italy." Now I want to know, from 

 some curious person in the north, whether there are any large 

 flocks of these finches with them in the winter, and of which 

 sex they mostly consist ? For, from such intelligence, one might 

 be able to judge whether our female flocks migrate from the 

 other end of the island, or whether they come over to us from 

 the continent.* 



We have, in the winter, vast flocks 

 of the common linnets ; more, I think, 

 than can be bred in any one district. 

 These, I observe, when the spring 

 advances, assemble on some tree in 

 the sunshine, and join all in a gentle 

 sort of chirping, as if they were about ^_ 



to break up their winter quarters and com"^ Linnet, 



betake themselves to their proper svimmer-homes.t It is well 



* It is stated by Mr. Selby that " in Northumberland and Scotland, this separating takes 

 place about the month of November; and" that, "from that period till the return of spring, few 

 females are to be seen, and these few m distinct societies." This, however, requires a little 

 qualifying, as there are many of both sexes that remain throughout the winter, and do not flock, 

 even in the warmer parts of Scotland. In ordinary winters in the south of England, a very large 

 proportion of them certainly do not congregate; and, of those that do, the sexes are not invari- 

 ably apart, but associate together along with yellow-buntings, green gross-beaks, and sometimes 

 mountain-spinks, or " bramble-finches." Once or twice I have met with flocks of white-winged 

 spinks, or "chaffinches," consisting entirely of hens, in Kent and Surrey, which I suspect were 

 from the north, but such flocks are here of comparatively rare occurrence, being the exception 

 rather than the rule. ED. 



t " Every one," observes Sir W. Jardine, in one of his excellent notes to the 8vo. edition of 

 Wilson's Ornithology, " who has lived much in the country, must have often remarked the com- 

 mon European linnets congregating towards the close of a fine winter's evening, perched on the 

 summit of some bare tree, pluming themselves in the last rays of the sun, chirruping the com- 

 mencement of their evening song, and then bursting simultaneously into one general chorus, 

 again resuming their single strains, and again joining, as if happy, and rejoicing at the termina- 

 tion of their day's employment." No particular allusion is here made to the .approach of spring, 

 which agrees with my own observation. It is remarkable that the males of our different species 

 of linnet (sub-genus linaria), in confinement, never acquire the bright crimson and roseate tints 

 which (chiefly in summer) more or less distinguish all of them in a state of nature. The feathers 

 on the crown of the head and breast of the common species (fringilla linarin cannabina), which, 

 in the wild state, are in winter dark brownish red, and are then fringed with deciduous dusky 

 f dgings, and which in the spring gradually change to a brilliant carmine, the tips, having by 

 degrees disappeared, are in the cage produced of a dull sombre brown colour, a slight shine on 

 them just intimating where the brighter hue is situate in the wild birds ; and, although the 

 deciduous fringes, or tips of the feathers, do partially wear off in due time, the colour of the 

 feather itself undergoes not the slightest change during the whole summer. The males of the 

 common dwarf-linnet or" lesser redpole" (fringilla linaria pusilla] , and of the closely allied mealy 

 linnet, or "greater" or "stony redpole"* (fringilla linaria canescens), after moulting in tie 

 cage, become of a saffron tint upon the crown of the head and breast, somewhat similar to that 

 on the heads of the wild females ; and the bright roseate tint above the tail of the male mountain- 

 linnet or "twite" (fringilla linaria montana), gives place in captivity to alike hue. None of 

 the red-breasted linnets acquire, in the wild state, their full colours till after the second moult. ED. 



* The latter term I have invariably found to be applied by the London bird-catchers to this 

 pccie*, and not to ihe common and smaller one, as it is stated in the books. 



