106 
FRINGILLID^. 
holes bored among the straw. Taking advantage of this latter 
habit, the people sometimes walk round after dark, beating the 
stacks with flails, and thus kill considerable numbers of the 
birds, comforting their consciences with the idea that no better 
proof could be given of the lintie’s ” destructiveness.^ But I 
am far from being convinced upon this latter point. No doubt, 
so many birds must consume a large quantity of corn, but it 
is only upon comparatively rare occasions — for instance, when 
the sheaves are being removed, and the ears consequently fully 
exposed — that I have found the crop or stomach full of corn. 
Time after time I have shot them in the very act of boring 
into the stacks, but in most instances have found very little 
besides small seeds. Indeed, when one comes to reflect that 
the sheaves are always placed with their heads towards the 
centre, one cannot see how the Linnet could obtain any but a 
very moderate supply of grain, for, unlike the buntings, they 
have not sufflcient strength to draw out the straws. The object 
of their search seems to be the innumerable small seeds of the 
various kinds of weeds which are reaped along with the corn, 
and which are of course also stacked. Numberless dissections 
have proved this to be the case. But this is only the flnishing 
stroke to the lintie’s good deeds at the close of the harvest. 
No sooner are the sheaves brought home than these birds 
crowd to the fields, where 1 grant they feed for a while almost 
exclusively upon the dropped grain ; but as soon as all this is 
picked up, they at once begin upon the seeds, and many a 
cropful of the noxious 8inaj)is arvensis have I found at such 
times. But the gravest charge of all against the Mountain 
Linnet is that of destroying the newly springing turnips; and 
here at least their guilt must be admitted. The moment the 
tender seed-leaves begin to appear, the Linnets come in 
swarms and bite them off, first deliberately pulling up the 
* The members of a certain family of my acquaintance have for many years 
borne the name of “linties,” a cognomen acquired by tlieir well-known habit 
of visiting their neighbours’ cornyarJs for dishonest purjioses. To this day the 
very allusion to a “liiitie” in the presence of any of them is regarded as a 
covert insult. 
