TWITE. 163 



grain ; but Saxby has placed beyond doubt the fact that its 

 chief object in boring, as it does, into the stacks is rather 

 to obtain the innumerable small seeds of various weeds that 

 are harvested with the crop. Accordingly he thinks that 

 this habit should be reckoned among its good deeds. A far 

 graver charge against it, in these islands, is that of destroy- 

 ing the newly-springing turnips and cabbages, and the guilt 

 here must, he says, be admitted, though common precautions 

 would easily guard against the loss. On the whole he con- 

 siders that the farmer gains by the bird's consuming the 

 seeds of noxious weeds, and especially by its rooting out the 

 hateful charlock on which it feeds equally with the cultivated 

 cruciferous plants. Over by far the greater part of this 

 country the Twite is not sufficiently numerous to affect crops 

 one way or the other, but when it visits the lowlands, as is 

 the case every winter, whatever it does must be beneficial, for 

 it keeps almost entirely to the stubbles and fallows, which at 

 that season afford it nothing that is valuable to man. 



The appearance of the Twite in the south and east of 

 England is subject to much irregularity, especially as regards 

 numbers. It is most commonly seen consorting with 

 Linnets, frequenting like them the neighbourhood of the 

 sea-coast, and usually feeding on the seeds of maritime 

 plants, but it also occurs not rarely inland. Our bird- 

 catchers immediately recognize its presence among a flock 

 of its congeners by its shriller call-note, the sound of which 

 is considered to resemble that of the word " twite," whence 

 the name by which it is so generally known. Otherwise 

 there is not much to distinguish it when at large from the 

 Linnet, though a practised eye may perhaps perceive its more 

 taper form and the smaller extent of white shewn on the 

 wings and tail as it flies. 



The Twite breeds in certain spots along the coast of 

 Norway as high as Trornso, as well as in some parts of the 

 interior, but it is not generally dispersed in that country, nor 

 in Sweden, where indeed its breeding-area seems still more 

 limited, not being known to extend below the subalpine dis- 

 tricts nor northward of lat. 64 40' N. In Finland the bird 



