108 
FRINGILLID^E. 
until by the end of winter scarcely a bird was to be seen; but 
the attempt to exterminate the midges would have proved as 
futile. When the turnips began to spring, there once more 
were multitudes of linties, prepared not only to devour turnip- 
tops, but to build their nests and rear their young in every 
suitable locality. 
]\Iountain Linnets seldom feed quietly when in flocks, but 
keep up a constant brisk chattering during the whole time. In 
flue spring weather they sit in thousands upon the walls, or 
on the topmost branches of the shrubs, singing and chattering 
without intermission, but instantly becoming silent on the 
approach of danger; then a few individuals begin their well- 
known call-note, and should the danger become imminent, the 
whole flock will simultaneously take wing for safer quarters, 
where in a very short time the clamour recommences with 
renewed vigour. 
In winter, as well as in summer, adult males have red upon 
the lower part of the back, but the winter colouring is by far 
the less brilliant. 
Laying begins about the middle of May, and fresh eggs may 
occasionally be found as late as the second week in August. 
The eggs vary considerably, and some varieties might readily 
be mistaken for those of the smaller finches. The eggs of the 
second laying are usually smaller and more slightly marked 
than those of the first. I have often found linties’ eggs upon 
tlie ground among the seedling turnips, as though the bird had 
been too busily occupied in the work of destruction to go 
home and lay. Some years ago, among the heather near the 
Loch of Cliff, I surprised a bird of this species upon a nest 
containing five pure white eggs. The nests are exceedingly 
numerous ; indeed, at the proper season, it is scarcely j)ossible 
to walk round a moderate-sized farm without finding one or 
more. The Twite is usually described as building only among 
grass or heath, but 1 have found the nest in almost every variety 
of situation; as, for instance, in walls, in peat stacks, among heaps 
of stones, in rugged banks of streams, in cavities beneath large 
