THE MOUNTAIN LINNET AND MEALY LINNET. 261 



ADDITIONAL. This bird is called by MACGILLIVBAY the 

 Smaller Redpole Linnet, and described by him as " the most 

 diminutive of our native Passerine birds, and withal so delicate, 

 lively, and affectionate a creature, as to be a special favourite 

 with most people who know it ; resembling the Siskin in its 

 habits as well as in shape, and being one of the species which 

 forms the transition from Linaria to Carduelis. Its flight is 

 peculiarly bounding and. buoyant, and its voice remarkably clear 

 and loud. When starting, it emits a hurried chatter 01 short 

 notes, and as it proceeds on its flight utters a single note at in- 

 tervals, less prolonged than those of our other Linnets. Its cry 

 is so different from that of the Brown Linnet and Twite, being 

 clearer and sharper, that one who has attended to it can readily 

 distinguish the species on the wing. Although not abundant in 

 any part of the country, it forms large flocks in winter, and betakes 

 itself to the birch and alder woods, in procuring the seeds of 

 which the birds hang in all kinds of attitudes, like many other 

 small species that find their subsistence on trees, such as Titmice 

 and Gold-crests. I have also seen them in August scattered over 

 a tract overgrown with thistles, the seeds of which they picked 

 out precisely in the same manner as the Goldfinch. On such oc- 

 casions, unless they have previously been shot at or pursued, 

 they take little heed of approaching danger, so that one may 

 easily approach them, or even go so near as to snare them with 

 a noose on a long stick or fishing-rod. In many parts of Scot- 

 land, and in the north of England, the Redpole remains all the 

 year, breeding in the hilly districts, among the brushwood that 

 skirts the flanks of the mountains, or covers the margins of 

 streams in rocky dells. Not having met with its nest, however, 

 I take the liberty of borrowing Mr. SELBY'S account of it. ' It 

 is built in a bush or low tree, (such as willow, alder, or hazel), of 

 moss and the stalks of dry grass, intermixed with down from the 

 catkin of the willow, which also forms the lining, and renders it 

 a particularly soft and warm receptacle for the eggs and young. 

 Prom this substance being a constant material of tne nest, it fol- 

 lows that the young are produced late in the season, and are sel- 

 dom able to fly before the end of June, or the beginning of July. 

 The eggs are four or five in number ; their colour, pale blueish 

 green, spotted with orange brown, principally towards the larger 

 end.' " 



THE MOUNTAIN LINNET AND THE MEALY LINNET. 



Two other species of Linnets are included by most naturalists 

 in the British Fauna, viz. those above mentioned ; the first of 

 which (the Fringella Flaviostres of LINNAEUS) is frequently called 



