258 
FEIN GILLIDiE . 
hairs in the lining, were swans-down and thistle-seed, this last 
being evidently made use of on account of its plumed appendages, 
all of which remained attached to the seed. Although these birds 
cannot strictly be said to build in company, yet so many as 
twenty nests may occasionally be reckoned in a moderate-sized 
shrubbery; and not unfrequently, too, be found in the same 
plant. Portugal laurels, hollies, and large evergreen shrubs, are 
the favourite sites. A correspondent mentions, that nests con- 
taining the young, have been removed to a considerable distance, 
without their being forsaken by the parent birds ; and, that in 
several instances the males were observed feeding the females. 
The latter left the nests on the approach of their partners, and 
when partaking of the food brought to them, kept up a cry like 
young birds when being fed. Mr. Poole has once known the 
nest of this bird to be completed in the county of Wexford, so 
early as the 26 th of March. Its “throwing itself about on wing 
at this season in a very striking and beautiful manner” has 
not escaped my correspondent's observation. This peculiar flight 
of the male bird is described by Sir Wm. Jardine. 
That greenlinnets collect into flocks, and remain so for the 
winter is well known. I have remarked about fifty together, 
in the neighbourhood of Belfast at that season, feeding in the 
highest cultivated fields adjoining the heath of the mountain-top, 
as well as in low-lying tracts, distant from any plantation or 
place, where they could roost for the night.* In summer likewise 
they are occasionally congregated. On the 27 th of June, a flock 
of about thirty was once observed feeding upon a mountain pas- 
ture, and numbers have at the same season come to meadows at 
the sea-side when ready for being mown, apparently for the pur- 
pose of feeding on the seed of the dandelion ( Leontodon Taraxa- 
cum ) , which w 7 as very abundant : — both localities were near to 
cultivated ground, and plantations of trees and shrubs. 
* In favourite localities, both in the north and south, flocks consisting of from 
200 to 300 birds are not unfrequent, late in the autumn and during winter ; when 
they often feed about stack-yards. They are much fonder of the seed of the corn- 
marigold ( Chrysanthemum segetum) than of the grain itself, among which that 
handsome weedgrows ; chaffinches and goldfinches are likewise so. 
