THE LINNET. 



195 



or Lintie, which frequents the hilly and mountainous dis- 

 tricts of Eastern Europe, the heathery moorlands, and the 

 banks and braes clothed with clumps of gorse or yellow 

 broom. Its song is singularly sweet and tender, like the 

 strain of an ^Eolian harp ; and when heard at evening on 





the declivity of a lonely moorland hill, fully justifies the 

 enthusiasm of its poetical eulogists : — 



"The purest hymn, 

 A melody like some old prophet-lay, 

 Is thine, poured forth from hedge and thicket dim, 

 Linnet ! wild Linnet ! " 



The Green Linnet is sometimes called the Greenfinch, 

 and the Green Grosbeak ; a bird about six inches and a 

 quarter in length, with a beautiful coat of green plumage. 



