200 
FRINGILLIDiE. 
7NSESSORES. FRINGILL1D/E. 
CONIROSTRES. 
COMMON LINNET. 
GREY-LINNET, BROWN-LINNET. 
Fringilla CANNABINA. 
PLATE LI. FIG. I. 
It was long supposed that there were two species under 
the common name of grey-linnet. We always believed so 
when at school, for those nests which we used to find in 
h edges were, for the most part, considerably larger than 
those built in furze-bushes ; there was, too, a great dis¬ 
parity in the size of the eggs, some being so large that 
when mixed with small specimens of the eggs of the 
green-linnet, we had difficulty in setting apart those of 
each species. 
In districts where furze abounds it is the favourite 
nesting resort of the grey-linnet. I have, however, found 
quite as many of their nests in the hedges of an inclosed 
country. Mr. Yarrell mentions a nest of this species 
which was found in a fir-tree ten or eleven feet above the 
ground. 
The nest differs little from that of the green-linnet, ex¬ 
cept in its having generally a larger proportion of roots, 
and less of moss in its composition. It is formed of small 
sticks, stalks of plants mixed with moss, roots, and wool, 
and is lined with hair and feathers, with sometimes a 
mixture of thistle or willow down. The eggs are four or 
five, and not unfrequently six, in number; they differ 
considerably. The third figure of the plate is as good a 
representative of some of them, as it is of the egg of the 
m ountain-linne t 
