THE LINNET. 253 



gilla Cannabma, LIN.), and the Yellow or Mountain Linnet 

 (Fringilla Montana, LIN.), are one and the same species. 



A male of three years old answers in spring to the following 

 description, and is known by the name of a Greater Redpole. 

 The forehead is blood-red ; the rest of the head reddish ash-en 

 grey, spotted on the poll with black, and on the cheeks, the 

 sides of the neck, and round the eyes, with reddish white. The 

 feathers of the upper part of the back are rusty brown, bor- 

 dered with a lighter shade of the same colour ; the lower part 

 is mottled with grey and white ; the upper tail coverts are 

 black, edged with reddish white sparingly spotted with reddish 

 grey. The feathers on the sides of the breast are blood red, 

 edged with reddish white ; the sides of the belly light rust 

 colour ; the rest of the lower part of the body reddish white. 

 The first row of coverts are black, edged with reddish white ; 

 the rest are rusty brown, with margin of a lighter hue. The 

 pen feathers are black, tipped with dirty white, the first row 

 being edged with white almost up to the points. The white 

 margin of the narrow plume forms a stripe parallel with the 

 pen feathers. The tail is forked and black ; the four external 

 feathers having on each a deep margin of white, which in the 

 two centre feathers is narrower, and tinged with red. 



After the autumnal moulting, the red on the forehead dis- 

 appears, and the same hue on the breast becomes less conspi- 

 cuous, as the reddish white margin of the feathers are broader ; 

 the colours, however, recover their brilliancy in the course of 

 the winter. 



Males of one year old have no red feathers on the head, on 

 which also the black spots are more numerous. The breast is 

 light rust colour, though not of a uniform shade throughout, 

 which arises from the fact that the inner side of the feathers is 

 of a shining greyish brown, more or less conspicuous, according 

 to the position of the bird, while their edges are, as before, 

 reddish white. The rust colour of the back, also, is spotted 

 with dark brown and reddish white. Such birds are known 

 under the name of Grey Linnets. 



After the second moulting, specks of blood red may be ob- 

 served on the under side of the reddish grey feathers of the 

 forehead ; and the red of the breast is concealed only by the 

 broad yellowish white margins of the feathers. These are the 

 Yellow, or Eock Linnets, as they are called in Thuringia. Bird- 



