52 GRAMINIVOILE. 



and passes into a pale peach-blossom on the flanks, and that 

 again into white on the belly, crest, and under tail-coverts. 

 The rump and upper tail-coverts, which are pale yellowish 

 brown in the winter, also receive a pale tint of red ; and the 

 same colour appears, but very faintly, on the rump, breast, 

 and flanks of the female. 



The brightness of those nuptial tints, or rather tint, for 

 the change of colour is the addition of red to the lighter 

 parts, varies a great deal, both in extent and intensity. 

 The seasonal red, like that on the common linnet, does not 

 appear till the birds are in song, and have arrived at their 

 breeding places ; and it seems to acquire brightness in pro- 

 portion as these are dry, warm, and sheltered. It is probable 

 also that the tints are brighter in those that breed farther 

 to the north, and later in the season ; that is, supposing the 

 situations equally sheltered. When the fine weather has 

 once set in on the southern slopes of the dry secondary 

 ridges of the mountains, the favourite abodes of the birdsj 

 the heat is not only much greater, but more continuous, 

 day and night, than in richer and more southerly places ; 

 and in those places, accordingly, the colour on the male is 

 not only rich, but the breast and flanks of the female have 

 a rosy tinge, as deep certainly, and nearly as clear, as the 

 blush rose. It is in such situations in Scotland, that the 

 rose linte is known to every cowboy as being a much smaller 

 bird, and having a nest in different places, and of different 

 materials from the common linnet. The natural copses of 

 alder, hazel, birch, or other stunted and bushy trees which 

 grow in the ravines near the edges of the moors, and also 

 the plantations of timber trees, when these are young, are 

 the? places in which to look for these birds and their nests. 

 The nest is in a low fork of one or other of these, and more 

 rarely in furze, or any low or close bush. The external part 

 of it is formed of slender twigs, then moss and feathers, with 



