124 TWITE. 



over the field on which they are going to settle, previously 

 to doing so, uttering a soft twitter at intervals. 



Their food consists of the seeds of various wild plants 

 and grasses the turnip, the thistle, chickweed, wild mustard, 

 groundsel, flax, knapweed, and others. 



The note is pleasing, and its usual chirp is considered to 

 resemble the name which it has thence derived. 



The nest is built on the ground, chiefly in heath, or 

 among gorse, and but seldom, if ever, in bushes. It is formed 

 of small roots, heather, moss, and dry grass, and is lined 

 with a small quantity of hair or wool, and a few feathers. 



The eggs, four, five, six, or seven in number, are of a pale 

 greenish or bluish white, spotted with reddish brown or 

 light brown and purple red towards the larger end, with 

 sometimes a few blackish dots. 



Male; length, five inches and a quarter; bill, yellow, in 

 summer yellowish white, sometimes greyish yellow ; iris, 

 hazel; head on the sides, light reddish brown; forehead, 

 crown, neck on the back, and nape, brown of two shades, the 

 middle part of the feather being darker than the rest. Chin 

 and throat, light reddish yellow brown; breast, light reddish 

 yellow brown, streaked on the sides with dark brown; below 

 dull brownish white; back, brown, middle part of the feathers 

 being darker than the rest, which enlarges in summer, making 

 the back darker; the lower part is crimson or purple red in 

 summer. 



The wings, which expand to the width of rather over 

 eight inches and three quarters, have the first and third 

 feathers equal in length, the second the longest in the wing, 

 the fourth a little shorter than the third; greater wing 

 coverts, tipped with pale brown, forming a bar across the 

 wing; lesser coverts, partially tipped with pale brown, forming 

 a second bar; primaries, brownish black, the four first edged 

 with white, with narrow edges of pale brown; tertiaries, 

 brownish black, and broader edges of pale brown. The tail, 

 which is long and much forked, is brownish black with narrow 

 yellowish brown external edges, arid white at the base, and 

 broader light brown or greyish' white inner margins; upper 

 tail coverts, brown, the middle of the feathers darker than 

 the edges; under tail coverts, dull brownish white, some of 

 them with a dark central mark; legs, toes, and claws, very 

 dark brown. 



The female in winter resembles the male, but is paler in 



