44 ALLEN'S NATURALISTS LIBRARY. 



Linota cannabina, Newt. ed. Yarr., ii., p. 153 (1877); B. O. U. 



List Br. B., p. 53 (1883) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Br. B., pt. vii. 



(1888). 

 Acanthis cannabina, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus., xii., p. 240 



(1888); Saunders, Man., p. 179 (1889). 



Adult Male. Reddish brown above, streaked with black; fore- 

 head crimson ; no black on chin ; breast crimson ; wing- 

 coverts not tipped with white, so as to form a wing-bar ; upper 

 tail-coverts and tail-feathers black, edged with white, increasing 

 on the outer feathers ; breast and abdomen dull buffy white ; 

 bill lead-colour ; feet and toes brown ; iris hazel-brown. Total 

 length, 5-5 inches ; culmen, 0-4; wing, 3-05 ; tail, 2*25 ; tarsus, 

 0-65. 



Female. Browner than the male, and wants the crimson 

 on the crown and breast ; the latter sandy buff, like the sides of 

 body and flanks, all streaked with dark brown. Total length, 

 5'3 inches ; culmen, 0*4; wing, 3*0 ; tail, 2*1 ; tarsus, 0^5. 



Young. Resembles the old female, but is more reddish brown ; 

 wings and tail as in the adults, but the white edgings washed 

 with rufous brown ; below white, washed with sandy buff on the 

 breast and sides of the body ; the throat spotted with dusky 

 brown, the fore-neck and breast with dusky brown streaks, and 

 the lower breast spotted with brown. 



In winter plumage the colours are much duller than in 

 summer, the crimson of the head and breast being hidden by 

 broad edgings to the feathers. These margins gradually wear 

 off as spring approaches, till the crimson colour alone remains ; 

 there is no spring moult. 



Range in Great Britain. Generally distributed, but rarer in 

 some parts of Scotland and not known in the Shetlands. 



Range outside the British Islands. Found over the whole of 

 Europe, as high as lat. 64 in Scandinavia, and in Eastern 

 Russia to lat. 60. It extends to the Caucasus, but here and 

 in Asia Minor the prevailing form is Cannabina fringillirostris, 

 a paler race with the primary-coverts white-edged, which takes 

 the place of the common Linnet throughout Central Asia. Our 

 Linnet is also found in North-western Africa, the Canaries and 

 Madeira. In spring and autumn a considerable migration of 



