TWITE. 
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over the field on which they are going to settle, previously 
to doing so, uttering a soft twitter at intervals. 
Their food consists of the seeds of various wild plants 
and grasses—the turnip, the thistle, chickweed, wild mustard, 
groundsel, flax, knapweed, and others. 
The note is pleasing, and its usual chirp is considered to 
resemble the name which it has thence derived. 
The nest is built on the ground, chiefly in heath, or 
among gorse, and but seldom, if ever, in hushes. It is formed 
of small roots, heather, moss, and dry grass, and is lined 
with a small quantity of hair or wool, and a few feathers. 
The eggs, four, five, six, or seven in number, are of a pale 
greenish or bluish white, spotted with reddish brown or 
light brown and purple red towards the larger end, with 
sometimes a few blackish dots. 
Male; length, five inches and a quarter; bill, yellow, in 
summer yellowish white, sometimes greyish yellow; iris, 
hazel; head on the sides, light reddish brown; forehead, 
crown, neck on the back, and nape, brown of two shades, the 
middle part of the feather being darker than the rest. Chin 
and throat, light reddish yellow brown; breast, light reddish 
yellow brown, streaked on the sides with dark brown; below 
dull brownish white; back, brown, middle part of the feathers 
being darker than the rest, which enlarges in summer, making 
the back darker; the lower part is crimson or purple red in 
summer. 
The wings, which expand to the width of rather over 
eight inches and three quarters, have the first and third 
feathers equal in length, the second the longest in the wing, 
the fourth a little shorter than the third; greater wing 
coverts, tipped with pale brown, forming a bar across the 
wing; lesser coverts, partially tipped with pale brown, forming 
a second bar; primaries, brownish black, the four first edged 
with white, with narrow edges of pale brown; tertiaries, 
brownish black, and broader edges of pale brown. The tail, 
which is long and much forked, is brownish black with narrow 
yellowish brown external edges, and white at the base, and 
broader light brown or greyish white inner margins; upper 
tail coverts, brown, the middle of the feathers darker than 
the edges; under tail coverts, dull brownish white, some of 
them with a dark central mark; legs, toes, and claws, very 
dark brown. 
The female in winter resembles the male, but is paler in 
