THE LINNET 



LINOTA CANNABINA 



LOCAL names in surrounding counties : " Red Linnet " 

 (male) (Essex). 



STATUS IN BRITISH AVIFAUNA : A common and widely 

 distributed resident, especially in winter, when its num- 

 bers are swelled by migrants from Continental areas. 



RADIAL DISTRIBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 

 PAUL'S : Of the small Finches the Linnet is by far the 

 commonest and best known throughout the Metropolitan 

 area. It breeds in many parts of it, although some- 

 what locally, doubtless because suitable ground is want- 

 ing in certain districts. I have records of it nesting on 

 Wimbledon and Tooting Commons, and various gorse- 

 covered spots in Surrey and Kent well within the eight- 

 mile radius. It is also tolerably common at Epping, and 

 may be found breeding at Hampstead, and in the Wembley, 

 Osterley, and Hounslow districts. It also nests at Harrow 

 and Stanmore, and in many other suitable spots in the 

 more rural suburbs. The places mentioned serve chiefly 

 as guides ; haunts of the Linnet may be found in many of 

 the intervening localities. In winter the bird is not so 

 local, and flocks may be met with much nearer the central 

 districts. I have often seen it on waste lands and brick- 

 fields adjoining Wormwood Scrubbs ; it is also a visitor 

 to some of the more urban parks, and to many of 

 the private grounds and gardens with which suburban 

 London abounds. On April 26, 1905, I watched a 

 female Linnet for some time hopping about the grass 

 and the beds of tulips in the ornamental gardens of the 

 Victoria Memorial opposite to Buckingham Palace, and 

 the bird has been recorded from Kensington Gardens 



During the summer the favourite haunts of the Linnet 

 are gorse-coverts, and here it nests in scattered pairs ; 

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