48 The Lhinet. 



very much alike, and easily mistaken for each other. The 

 name red-pole is given from the bright crimson spot on their 

 heads — pole or poll being the old Saxon word for head. The 

 back of our linnet's head and the sides of his neck are of dingy 

 ash-colour, his back of a warm brown tint, his wings black, his 

 throat of a dull white, spotted with brown, his breast a brilliant 

 red, and the under part of his body a dingy white. 



The linnet, amongst singing birds, is what a song writer is 

 amongst poets. He is not a grand singer, like the blackbird 

 or the thrush, the missel-thrush or the wood-lark, all of which 

 seem to have an epic story in their songs, nor, of course, like 

 the skylark, singing up to the gates of heaven, or the nightin- 

 gale, that chief psalmist of all bird singers. But, though much 

 humbler than any of these, he is a sweet and pleasant melodist; 

 a singer of charming little songs, full of the delight of summer, 

 the freshness of open heaths, with their fragrant gorse, or of 

 the Scottish brae, with its " bonnie broom," also in golden 

 blossom. His are unpretending little songs of intense enjoy- 

 ment, simple thanksgivings for the pleasures of life, for the 

 little brown hen-bird, who has not a bit of scarlet in her plum- 

 age, and who sits in her snug nest on her fine little white eggs, 

 with their circle of freckles and brown spots at the thicker end, 

 always alike, a sweet, patient mother, waiting for the time when 

 the young ones will come into life from that delicate shell- 

 covering, blind at first, though slightly clothed in greyish- 

 brown — five little linnets gaping for food. 



The linnet mostly builds its nest in low bushes, the furze 

 being its favourite resort ; it is constructed outside of dry grass, 

 roots, and moss, and lined with hair and wool. We have it 



