54 GRAMINIVOILE. 



very pretty to watch one picking the calkins on the Ion 

 pendulous twigs of a weeping birch over a mountain stream. 

 Those twigs are often twenty feet long, and little thicker 

 than packthread. On the points of these the little birds 

 may sometimes be seen, swinging backwards and forwards, 

 like the bobs of pendulums, busy feeding, and never losing 

 their perch. 



THE MOUNTAIN LINNET (Fringilla montiwii). 



The mountain linnet, or twite, nestles and inhabits still 

 farther in the wilds than the last-mentioned species. It is, 

 in fact, a heath-bird, and the only one of our little birds that 

 can be strictly considered as a tenant of the cold and bush- 

 less moor ; and on that account, one feels an interest in it, 

 which it would perhaps not have if it dwelt and reared its 

 brood in richer places. 



In winter, these birds migrate to the lower and wanner 

 parts of the country, as the places which they most frequent 

 in summer are, in winter, covered with snow. They asso- 

 ciate with the other linnets ; and as they are subject to a 

 change of plumage somewhat similar, they are apt to be mis- 

 taken for, or confounded with, the female red-poles. The 

 species are, however, easily distinguished by a little exami- 

 nation. The twite is rather larger, and more compact and 

 firmly built ; the bill is a little longer, and the culmen and 

 under side are both perfectly straight lines. The tail is 

 firmer, and not quite so much forked ; the two bars on the 

 closed wing are smaller and nearer to each other ; and the 

 whole plumage is more dingy. In colour, the winter plumage 

 of the twite more nearly resembles that of the female spar- 

 row ; but the two bars on the wing, the light margins on the 

 quills and tail-feathers, and the greater strength and spread 

 of the latter, easily distinguish them. 



In summer; the tinge of rose-colour on the rump, and the 



