202 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



begins to assume this colour in the early spring ; it 

 makes its first appearance as a sort of dullish dark 

 red in the centre and lower part of the feather, and 

 gradually, but rather rapidly, spreads over the whole 

 feather, increasing in brightness till it develops itself 

 in the bright scarlet before described ; the red upon 

 the forehead also develops itself much in the same 

 way. In autumn and winter the breast is yellowish 

 brown, mixed with dull white, streaked with dusky ; 

 flanks the same ; the belly and other tail-coverts are 

 much the same, but lighter ; legs, toes and claws 

 brown. The female, as a rule, does not assume the 

 red breast, but that it does so occasionally would 

 appear from the following observation of Yarrell : 

 " The female has been taken with a fine red breast, 

 but this is not generally the case." Varieties of the 

 Linnet occasionally occur ; one is mentioned by Mr. 

 Blake-Knox,* as having the head entirely white and 

 the rest white and brown ; and another is mentioned 

 as having a saddle of pure white across the back, t 



The eggs of the Linnet are of a light greenish 

 ground, with dark purple brown spots of two shades, 

 mostly round the thicker end ; in some the spots are 

 all of one colour, and are more spread over the 

 whole egg. 



* ' Zoologist ' for 1864, p. 8877. 

 f Id., 1865 (Second Series), p. 262. 



