RUDDY-BREASTED BIRDS. 109 



parties, and when engaged in seeking their seed-food, 

 often in birch or alder, their habit of hanging on to 

 the branches with all sorts of eccentric postures 

 recalls the topsy-turvy antics of the Tits, of which 

 birds, as also of Siskins, they are occasionally foraging 

 companions. For the most part, however, they keep 

 themselves to themselves, and in autumn may also 

 often be met flitting about the open, feeding upon 

 the seeds of ground plants. The song is a short, 

 shrill trill, the call a caressing note, and the alarm- 

 not^ a hard chirp, all of which resemble similar but 

 mellower notes of the Common Linnet. 



MEALY REDPOLL — 5 inches; closely resembles the 

 Lesser EedpoU in all respects, but grayish streaks give 

 to the upper parts the ' mealy ' paleness distinguishing 

 them from the darker and warmer brown of the upper 

 parts of the Lesser Redpoll. 



LINNET — 5| inches ; visibly larger than the Redpoll ; almost 

 exclusively a bird of the open country, feeding on the 

 ground ; grayish head ; no black on face or chin. 



TWITE — 5 inches ; a bird of the moors and mosses ; paler 

 brown above, and showing when flying white edgings to 

 the wing and tail feathers ; no black on face or chin. 



MEALY REDPOLL.— Form, like Lesser Kedpoll 

 (plate 49). Length, 5 inches. Upper parts dark 

 brown streaked with grayish-white, notably the rump 

 (this last in summer flushed rosy) ; wings and tail- 

 feathers dark brown, light-edged, the wings with a 

 white cross-bar ; patch before eye and chin black ; 

 fore-crown and breast red (hidden in winter by 

 grayish edgings to feathers) ; belly dull white, with 

 dark streaks on flanks. Winter migrant. 



Distribution.— A winter migrant to the Shetlands 



