T W I T E .
LINOTA FLAFIR08TRIS.
THOUGH of necessity somewhat local, owing to the nature of tho country suitable to its requirements, the
Twite appears to be distributed over the British Islands from north to south. On tho dreary Hals of
moorland that stretch for many miles across the central portion of Caithness, I have met with numbers of
this species throughout the summer months; whilst in Sussex, the saltings that border the river Adur, as
well as those lying inside the shingle-banks on the shores of the channel, are annually resorted to by large
flocks on the approach of winter.
Tho Twite is a lively and active bird, always on the move, its actions, when in flocks, resembling
those of the Linnet, though the localities in which it is usually found during winter point to the
fact that this species prefers situations where its feeding-grounds arc exposed to the influence of salt,
supplied cither by the spray from the sea or the overflow of the tide.
This species is usually reported by writers as most abundant in the western districts uf Scotland;
some twenty years ago, however, I repeatedly met with small parties (numbering from a dozen up to
fifty) about the links and waste lands extending along the shores of the Firth of Forth to the cast of
Dunbar. To the coast or Norfolk the Twite is also a winter visitor; lis well-known call-notes attracted my
attention while crossing the rough stony banks in the vicinity of the shore near Sulthousc, towards
the end of February 1*72. The birds were eventually detected feeding among the weeds and rough grass
growing round the pools of water in the shingle; when first noticed they were intermixed with Shore-
Larks, though on taking wing the two species Immediately separated. In Sussex these birds occasionally
join in company, when on flight, with Linnets, though the immense flocks tliat resort to the saltings and
adjacent rough binds are usually MM alone. Along the sea-coast halfway between Shorehani and Lancing
there is a large sheet of brackish water, formed through the removal of soil for raising an embankment;
this poo] is surrounded by banks of mud and shingle, overgrown by coarse grass, dock, sen poppy, beet,
and numberless other plants. Here in autumn floelra of Twites are to he observed kboul the latter end
of October, remaining in the locality till the approach of spring. On the 0th of November l»-s2, I
remarked these birds in more than ordinary numbers, their favourite haunts being about the patches of
rank herbage on the damp and marshy [tortious of the ground. .Meadow-Pipits ro-orlcd at all seasons to
this waste, and the small parties of tirceufinches and Chaflinehcs that harboured about the shingle-banks
often Milled on the drier spots; though occasionally intermixing with other species while feeding over the
ground, tin' Twites appeared to fraternize w ith the Linnets only.
If watched at its home on the open moors of the Highlands, Hitting from one twig of heather to
another, it will readily be noticed that the colouring of the Twite is sober ¡11 the extreme, the rosy tinge on the
rump of the male being by no means conspicuous; ihe \ellow bill, however, at once attracts attention and
reveals the species. As far as my ow 11 experience goes, the name of Mountain-Linnet is scarcely applicable ;