CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 31 



the bird-catchers, have kept on gradually reducing 

 their numbers, till in some parts of the country they 

 are now almost become rare birds. They are, how- 

 ever, still numerous during the early part of the winter 

 near Brighton, I find the average take for one pair 

 of nets of a morning is between thirty and fifty dozen. 

 The hens are killed, the males sent to London. 



I have noticed them some winters joining with the 

 Twites, and frequenting the weeds that grow on the 

 salt-water mudbanks in Shoreham harbour. 



Some years ago, in East Lothian, I discovered a 

 nest of this bird in the side of a wheat stack at about 

 fourteen feet from the ground. The young were just 

 on the point of flying. It was rather singular that in 

 the thatch of the adjoining stack a partridge was 

 sitting on fourteen eggs. 



The specimens in the case, male, female, and brood, 

 were obtained on the Downs in the neighbourhood of 

 Brighton, in June, 1870. 



LINNET. (WINTER.) 

 Case 41. 



It will be seen by the specimens in the case that 

 during winter the male birds of this species lose the 

 handsome crimson feathers that adorn their breasts in 

 summer, and take in their place others of a more 

 sober claret colour. 



If kept in confinement they never regain the bright 

 colour when they have once lost it. 



The specimens in the case were obtained between 

 Rottingdean and Newhaven, in Sussex, during the 

 severe weather in December, 1874. 



