LINNET 
119 
the Finches, and in colour a mixture of neat but 
sober browns and greys, with darker wings streaked 
lengthways with dingy white. But during the 
breeding season the plumage of the cock bird be- 
comes much brighter and more strongly marked ; 
a crimson spot appears on the head, and the breast 
is also flushed with red. The nest is considerably 
smaller than a Greenfinch's or Hedge Sparrow's, 
and very neatly and strongly made ; twigs, roots, 
dry weed-tufts, and a little moss are the usual 
materials for the outside, and it is lined with wool, 
hair, seed-down, and finer fibrous roots. It is most 
commonly built in a furze-bush, but often in other 
low bushes and hedges, or even in low trees. Five 
or six is the general number of the eggs ; they 
vary a good deal in size, but are always smaller 
than a Greenfinch's, which they often resemble 
rather closely in colour. They are bluish or 
greyish-white, marked with small spots, specks and 
dashes of dark red-brown ; odd varieties are not 
uncommon with an almost pure white ground, and 
a few large streaks and blotches of red-brown or 
brown. The song of the caged Linnet is chiefly 
acquired by imitation and training, but the natural 
song is also a sweet one, though rather faint and 
fitful in delivery. 
