of the Norfolk and Suffolk Birds. 27 



of the two : he would frequently erect his crest, and both of them 

 would snap their beaks at each other by way of menace. He 

 had no regular song, but uttered notes resembling those of the 

 Greater Redpole and Green Grosbeak, and also the gentle com- 

 placent note occasionally uttered by the female Chaffinch. — La- 

 tham says the legs are gray, and Bewick describes them as pale- 

 brown. The hind part of the legs and the bottoms of the feet 

 of a specimen which Ave examined, were of a bright yellow. In 

 a female killed late in April, the remark of Linnaeus, alarum 

 basi subtils favissima, was very striking. 



7- F. cannabina (Common Linnet). 



8. F. moiitium (Twite, French Linnet). 



This is a winter bird of passage. We have found them plenti- 

 ful in the month of October on Pewit Island, and on the main 

 land of Essex near it, in flocks of ten and twenty together ; and 

 towards evening we noticed a flock of about a hundred : so that 

 it seems not improbable that the flocks may collect together to 

 pass the night. No other birds were mixed with these flocks, 

 which were feeding on the seeds of the INIarsh Samphire (Sali- 

 cornia herbacea), and Sea Starwoi't {Aster tripolium). Their little 

 twittering note, as they sit or fly, might easily be mistaken for 

 that of the Siskin ; but their ay, ay, ay, tz€)te, tic)te, tuite, (whence 

 certainly their name,) at once distinguishes them. Twites are 

 found in the salt-marshes near Yarmouth ; and we have seen a 

 flock of them at Shotley Point in Suffolk. A Twite was killed on 

 the 23rd of May ; so that a few may perhaps breed in this coun- 

 try. Mr. Scales informs us that this species of Finch visits 

 Beechamwell very early in the spring, and feeds upon the seeds 

 of the Alder as they drop from the cones. 



At half-past five o'clock in the morning of March 20th, 1820, 



E 2 a very 



