advances, and betake themselves to the lower districts. ee oe oon 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 Bn) go on
and searching for food with great assiduity, the stragglers every now and then flying up to oe 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, ale 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 oF 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-bill, 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 cover
tree, or wheeling in clouds over stubble-fields where groundsel and other se
They are very fond, too, of turnip-seed.”

Of two very handsome nests taken in Hampshire, and obligingly
one was composed externally of coarse roots, and intern
decorated on the outside with a few pieces of lichen ;
dried moss, lined with a mixture of cow-hair and wool

The eggs are four or five in number, of a P
particularly toward the larger end.

The young usually leave the nest at the end of May; their pluma
in winter; their bills are purplish-olive, and their feet fle
the year.

ing the top of a large
eds which they feed on abound.

brought for my inspection by Mr. Bond,
ally of very fine ones mixed with wool, and was
the other was composed of coarse roots and a little
; feathers are occasionally employed in the lining.

ale bluish white speckled with pale purple and reddish brown,

ge is then very like that of the old bird
sh-colour. There are generally two broods in

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
ing of the male.

The Plate represents an adult male in full summer pluma

all the size of life.

me that very old females sometimes assume the colour

ge, a male in his early spring dress, and a female,
The plant is the Juniperus communis.

  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
   
  
  
   
   
    
    
  
 
  
   
   
   
   
    
   
  
   
   
   
    

 

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