150 
POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. 
dreary poplar-woods of Eastern Siberia are rendered less me- 
lancholy by pleasant-looking rosy and grey-bodied linnets^ 
with a yellow beak, white wing, and long black tail (the 
Loxia Sibirica of Pallas'^). 
The Linnets, generally sombre in plumage, are light- 
hearted birds, cheering many an otherwise dreary spot in 
America, Europe, and Asia with their note ; the males ac- 
quiring in the spring rosy hues, which are ^ sweetly pretty,^ 
the crown of the head in some species, and also a large 
mark on the breast, being of a carmine colour. 
One of the most beautifully coloured of the genera of the 
Finches is the Poephila, a native of the grassy beds of the 
open plains of Australia, where several species are found. 
As the name implies, the species feed chiefly on the seeds of 
the various grasses which grow in their haunts ; the bill is 
nearly as deep and broad at the base as it is long; the tail 
is wedge-shaped, the two middle feathers being much longer 
than the others. 
Mr. MacgiUivray wrote to me the following note on this 
prettiest of the finches (Plate X. fig. 3) before he sailed for 
the Eigi group :— 
>;< Pyrrhula longicaiida, Temm., Gould, ' Birds of Europe/ TJragus Sibi- 
ricus, Bou. and Schlegel, p. 30, t. 35. 
