MOUNTAIN LINNET, OR TWITE. 285 
being of a deep purplish brown at the base, but 
which is nearly obscured by the pale tips con- 
cealing the darker tint. 
It may be remarked, that in confinement the 
breeding plumage is not assumed, and a male 
taken in the highest stage of his full summer 
livery does not regain it in the coming year. 
The Mountain Linnet, or Twite, Linaria 
Montana. — Fringilla montana , montium, Penn. 
Mont. — Linaria montana , Selby. — Linota 
montium , Yarrell. — Mountain Linnet, or Twite, 
of British authors. — The northern parts of Britain 
are, perhaps, the localities which may be most 
properly assigned to this Linnet, as it regularly 
breeds there, assembling in large flocks during 
winter, many also being permanently resident; it 
decreases and becomes partially migratory as it 
approaches the south, while the last species which 
there replaces it is similarly affected in the bor- 
ders of its northern range. In the north of Scot- 
land and Hebrides, it is the common species ; * 
and although its nest has been recorded in York- 
shire, Staffordshire, and Derbyshire, (all of which 
are in many parts almost Alpine districts,) these, 
as Mr Yarrel observes, may be the limit of its 
southern nidification. In the south of Scotland, 
and in England, the general time of appearance 
is in winter, frequenting nearly the same localities 
* Macgillivray, Lowe, Dunn, &c. our own observa- 
tions. 
