advances, and betake themselves to the lower districts. These flocks sometimes mingle with other allied 
birds ; but for the most part they keep distinct, performing their various evolutions by themselves. They 
generally move in a rather close mass, advance in one direction by short leaps, crouching as they go on 
and searching for food with great assiduity, the stragglers every now and then flying up to the main body. 
The flight is rapid and undulated, and performed by alternate flaps and cessations in a curved line, after the 
manner of the Green Linnet, but with still more activity. As the flocks glide and wheel, the individuals 
composing them cross the direction of each other in a very beautiful manner. On the ground it is equally 
active. Its voice is soft and mellow, and its song varied and remarkably sweet.” 
“To witness a number of Linnets feeding,” remarks Thompson, “is a very pleasing sight. Several 
may be seen in different attitudes busy in extracting the seeds from a single thistle or ragweed, which all the 
while keeps moving to and fro with their weight. The ear is at the same time gratified with the lively call 
which is constantly uttered by one or more of the party. 
“ Sir William Jardine has very pleasingly observed in a note to his edition of Wilson’s ‘ American Orni- 
thology,’ that ‘ every one who has lived much in the country must have often remarked the common Linnets 
congregating towards the close of a fine winter’s evening, perched on the summit of some bare tree, pluming 
themselves in the last rays of the sun, chirruping the commencement of their evening song, and bursting 
simultaneously into one general chorus, again resuming their single strains, and again joining, as if happy 
and rejoicing at the termination of their day’s employment.’ I had daily, for a season, the gratification of 
thus observing them at Wolf-hill, where the effect was heightened by the black Italian poplars which they 
alighted on and dotted with their numbers to the very apex, having pyramidal-formed heads, and accord- 
ingly presenting several pyramids of birds, each giving forth its peal of music; when this ceased the birds 
descended to roost in the fine large Portugal laurels growing beneath and around the trees.” 
“ The common Linnet,” says St. John in his ‘ Natural History and Sport in Moray,’ “ is spread abundantly 
all over the country, breeding in furze-bushes and other dense-growing shrubs, though more frequently in 
the furze than in any other plant. Its nest is made of grass and dried fibres, with a little moss, and lined 
with wool. The Linnets collect in immense flocks towards winter, sometimes covering the top of a large 
tree, or wheeling in clouds over stuhble-fields where groundsel and other seeds which they feed on abound. 
They are very fond, too, of turnip-seed.” 
Of two very handsome nests taken in Hampshire, and obligingly brought for my inspection by Mr. Bond, 
one was composed externally of coarse roots, and internally of very fine ones mixed with wool, and was 
decorated on the outside with a few pieces of lichen ; the other was composed of coarse roots and a little 
dried moss, lined with a mixture of cow-hair and wool ; feathers are occasionally employed in the lining. 
The eggs are four or five in number, of a pale bluish white speckled with pale purple and reddish brown, 
particularly towards the larger end. 
The young usually leave the nest at the end of May ; their plumage is then very like that of the old bird 
in winter; their bills are purplish-olive, and their feet flesh-colour. There are generally two broods in 
the year. 
The principal characteristics of the male have been indicated above ; the females and the fully fledged 
young are of a nearly uniform brown, or at most so little varied as not to catch the eye. Mr. Blyth informs 
me that very old females sometimes assume the colouring of the male. 
The Plate represents an adult male in full summer plumage, a male in his early spring dress, and a female, 
all the size of life. The plant is the Jimiperiis commimis. 
