OF XOETHTTMBEKIANT) AlfD DTJEHAM, 53 



winter or autumn visitant ; but, from the above fact, it is evi- 

 dent that it occasionally remains in tlie district tbe wbole year. 

 It must therefore be considered a resident species. 



It breeds regularly in the north of Scotland. On the 2nd of 

 May, 1850, I took two nests of it in a large pine wood at Loch- 

 nabo, in the neighbourhood of Elgin. One was placed within two 

 feet of the extremity of a horizontal branch, more than half way 

 up the tree ; the other occupied a similar situation in a neighboui-- 

 ing tree. In both the eggs were hatched ; in one the young were 

 nearly fledged. Both nests, with their inmates, are in my col- 

 lection. I afterwards received numerous nests and eggs, taken 

 in Rosshire, where the species breeds regularly every year, 

 and is as common there as the Crossbill. The nests are as fre- 

 quently in a Scotch fir as in a spruce, and are usually situated 

 as above described. 



47. CANNABIXA, Brehm. 



39. Linnet. C. linota, {Gmelin.) 



Fring. cannahina, Bewick, Hist. Brit. Birds, Ed. 1847, 1., 253. 



Linota ,, Yarrell, Hist. Biit. Birds, Ed. 2, I., 550. 



A common resident. This species has the breast sometimes 

 red, sometimes grey, and consequently, a few years ago, 

 individuals so differing were described as two species, and 

 named respectively the Brown and Grey Linnet. When the 

 Brown Linnet is kept in confinement it loses the red on the 

 breast on the first moult, and never afterwards regains it, but 

 continues in the plumage of the Grrey Linnet. The fact is that 

 the males, from shedding the nest feathers get a red breast, 

 which they retain only during the first season; they then assume 

 the garb of the female, which is retained for the rest of their 

 lives, as in the case of the Crossbill. This does not seem to be 

 generally understood by ornithologists, though the bird fancier 

 is quite familiar with the fact that the males never regain the 

 red on the breast after moulting. It is stated by Yarrell, that 

 the male assumes the red breast in the breeding season. This 



