LINNET 



153 



firs, pines, junipers, hawthorns, blackthorn, gorse, or currant and gooseberry 

 bushes, in hedges, among climbing plants and vines, or on low lime-trees, dwarf 

 chestnuts, or beeches, in quickset hedges, and even in peat-stacks. In Holland 

 sandy situations, such as the sandhills of Ameland, are selected. The nest may some- 

 times contain eggs so early as the end of March, and is always full in April, and a 

 second time at the end of May or in June. The young are fed from the parental 



THE LINNET. 



gullet, in which the food, which has often to be brought from the fields at a 

 great distance, is softened. When the young birds are a little older, the parents 

 leave the nest, but perch alongside, the cock first flying to the young and feeding 

 them one after another, after which he is relieved by his partner in this duty. 

 For a time the two parent birds sit quiet on their perches, after which they hurry 

 forth again to the fields to obtain food. The young in no way betray their 

 presence in the nest, and the old birds, when suspicious that they are being 

 watched, remain away for a long time, but occasionally call to their offspring in 



