14 
British Birds. 
breast and no red cap, the head 
being coloured like the back. It 
is also easily recognised by its 
yellow bill. The Twite is a 
resident bird with us, but breeds 
only on the moorlands ot certain 
parts of Ireland, Scotland, and 
the northern counties of Eng- 
land, as far south as some ot 
the Midlands. In winter it 
migrates southwards and is 
seen in flocks of considerable 
size near the coasts, where the 
birds feed on seeds of aquatic 
plants, and keep up a continued and musical twittering, as they feed. The call-note 
resembles that of a Redpoll or Siskin, being a somewhat harsh ‘ eaglet.' The nest 
is cup-shaped and made of moss with a few heather twigs and is lined with rootlets 
or feathers and down. The eggs are from four to six in number, and are of the 
usual Linnet type, being light blue with red or purple spots and lines. 
The Brown Linnet ( Cannabina cannabina) is easily recognised from its allies 
by the crimson forehead and breast of the male, but more especially by the 
white on the upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers, which are edged with white. 
The young birds have the breast spotted with brown, and in winter the plumage 
of the adults is concealed by broad brown margins to the feathers, which gain 
their full beauty in spring by the abrasion and falling off of these brown edgings. 
The Linnet is found breeding over the greater part of the British Islands, and in 
winter and spring considerable accessions to the number of our resident birds take 
place by the immigration of birds from the Continent; these individuals are 
generally brighter in colour than our resident birds. The food of the Linnet consists 
almost entirely of seeds of some kind, and the birds distribute themselves over the 
stubbles and fallow ground in the autumn, when I have seen large flocks of them, in 
September, in the coast-lands in the south of England. The nest is a neat cup, made 
of moss with a few twigs, and lined with horse-hair. It is generally to be looked for 
in gorse or heather, and the eggs are from four to six in number, bluish with spots and 
streaks of purplish-brown. 
The Lesser Redpoll ( Cannabina rufescens). This is a smaller bird than the 
Linnet or the Twite, and is brown, with a crimson cap, breast, and rump. It is 
exclusively a species of Western Europe, and nests in nearly every part of the 
United Kingdom, excepting the south-western counties of England ; in the south ot 
England it appears to be spreading, as it nests not unfrequently now in Middlesex, 
Surrey and Kent. On the Continent it nests in France, Belgium, Holland, 
and Western Germany, as well as in the Alps of Italy, Savoy, and Styria. In 
The Brown Linnet. 
