LI NOT A 313 



inch. The female is browner and more striped on the upper parts, has 

 the breast and flanks striped with brown and lacks the red on the fore- 

 head and breast. In the winter the plumage of the male is duller, and 

 the red on the forehead and breast is obscured by whitish margins to the 

 feathers. 



Hob. Europe generally, as far north as the Trondhjem Fjord 

 and Lulea, south into North Africa, west to the Canaries and 

 Madeira, and east through Asia Minor and Persia to Sind, 

 Gilgit, and Turkestan. 



In the summer it frequents the outskirts of woods, groves, 

 gardens, and hedgerows, and is often seen on bush-covered hill- 

 sides, and in the winter it collects in flocks and roams about the 

 fields in company with other Finches. Though quiet and 

 peaceable it is tolerably wary, and in winter rather shy. It 

 feeds chiefly on seeds especially those of an oily nature, and 

 consumes those of many noxious weeds. Its note is a short, 

 harsh, geclc, gecker, its song sweet and flute-like ; and it is 

 much esteemed as a cage-bird. In March it commences 

 nidification, and its nest, which is placed in a tree, bush, or 

 hedge, occasionally even on the ground, is constructed of straws, 

 bents and rootlets, lined with fine roots, wool, and horsehair. 

 The eggs which are deposited in April and June, two broods 

 being raised in the season, are pale sea-green or blue-green 

 finely spotted and blotched with violet-grey, pale red, and 

 blood-red, and average about 0'7l by 0*54. Asiatic birds are 

 rather greyer and brighter in colour, and have been separated 

 subspecifically under the name of L. fringillirostris Bp. and 

 Schl. (L. bella, Cabanis). But I cannot consider them as even 

 subspecifically distinct. 



459. TWITE. 

 LINOTA FLAVIROSTRIS. 



Linota flavirostris (Linn.), Syst. Nat. i. p. 322 (1766) ; Newton, ii. 

 p. 160 ; Dresser, iv. p. 59, pi. 191 ; (Sharpe), Cat. B. Br. Mus. xii. 

 p. 236 ; Saunders, p. 193 ; Lilford, iv. p. 66, pi. 32 ; Fring. montium, 

 Gmel., Syst. Nat. i. p. 917 (1788) ; Naum., v. p. 103, pi. 122 ; 

 Hewitson,i. p. 203, pi. li. fig. 3 ; (Gould), B. of Gt. Brit. iii. pi. 50. 



Linotte a lee jaune, French ; Pajarel, Span. ; Montanello 

 forestiero, Ital. ; Berghdnfling, German ; Fratertje, Dutch ; 

 Bjergirisk, Dan. ; Gulnaebbet Irislc, Norw. ; Gidnabbad-Hamp- 

 ling, Swed. ; Keltanokka varpunen, Finn. 



