258 fpjngillidjE. 



hairs in the lining, were swans-down and thistle-seed, this last 

 being evidently made use of on account of its plumed appendages, 

 all of which remained attached to the seed. Although these birds 

 cannot strictly be said to build in company, yet so many as 

 twenty nests may occasionally be reckoned in a moderate-sized 

 shrubbery; and not unfrequently, too, be found in the "same 

 plant. Portugal laurels, hollies, and large evergreen shrubs, are 

 the favourite sites. A correspondent mentions, that nests con- 

 taining the young, have been removed to a considerable distance, 

 without their being forsaken by the parent birds ; and, that in 

 several instances the males were observed feeding the females. 

 The latter left the nests on the approach of their partners, and 

 when partaking of the food brought to them, kept up a cry like 

 young birds when being fed. Mr. Poole has once known the 

 nest of this bird to be completed in the county of Wexford, so 

 early as the 26th of March. Its "throwing itself about on wing 

 at this season in a very striking and beautiful manner" has 

 not escaped my correspondent's observation. This peculiar flight 

 of the male bird is described by Sir Wm. Jardine. 



That greenlinnets collect into flocks, and remain so for the 

 winter is well known. I have remarked about fifty together, 

 in the neighbourhood of Belfast at that season, feeding in the 

 highest cultivated fields adjoining the heath of the mountain-top, 

 as well as in low-lying tracts, distant from any plantation or 

 place, where they could roost for the night.* In summer likewise 

 they are occasionally congregated. On the 27th of June, a flock 

 of about thirty was once observed feeding upon a mountain pas- 

 ture, and numbers have at the same season come to meadows at 

 the sea-side when ready for being mown, apparently for the pur- 

 pose of feeding on the seed of the dandelion {Leontodon Taraxa- 

 cum), which was very abundant : — both localities were near to 

 cultivated ground, and plantations of trees and shrubs. 



* In favourite localities, both in the north and south, flocks consisting of froni 

 200 to 300 birds are not unfrequent, late in the autumn and during winter ; when 

 they often feed about stack-yards. They arc much fonder of the seed of the corn- 

 marigold [Chrysanthemum, segetum) than of the grain itself, among which that 

 haudsome weedgrows j chaffinches and goldfinches are likewise so. 



