and it is perhaps in such neighbourhoods that most of those
which stop with us reside until the returning spring.
Towards the close of a fine winter’s afternoon the various
stragglifig parties that have been foraging all day long congregate
on the top of some tall tree in the sunshine, and at
first join in a gentle sort of chirping, presently bursting into
a full chorus of song, and then again resuming their single
strains continue this performance till the sun is set.*
The Linnet is generally distributed, as before remarked,
over the United Kingdom—exception being made as regards
Shetland, and is especially common in Ireland. In the lowlands
of southern Norway it is pretty common, .but becomes
scarcer towards the north and is not known to breed beyond
lat. 68°. In Sweden it does not usually appear much higher,
but Johann Wahlberg obtained it at Lulea, and Wheelwright
says that he saw it at Quickjock. The latitude above
mentioned seems also to mark off its ordinary limit in Finland
and Russia, in which latter it is found on the Dvina
and so probably to the Ural mountains. Pallas says it is
never seen in Siberia, but it is now known to inhabit
Turkestan, which at present must be taken as its most
eastern extension.! Thence it may be traced through
Persia, Circassia, Armenia, Asia Minor and Palestine,
where it breeds, to Egypt, where it is a winter-visitant, and
Abyssinia. In Algeria and Morocco it is abundant, as well
as in the Canaries and Madeira. In the locality last named,
the cocks are said to keep their bright colouring all the year,
instead of losing it in winter. Throughout all the rest of
Europe, south of the boundary above indicated, it is plentifully
dispersed, and, except in the most northern parts, is
generally to be found at every season, though, as with us, the
great bulk of the birds depart at the approach of winter.
* I t is at this time that the combination of sounds resembles the ending of
the Redwing’s song as before stated ( y o I . i. page 270).
f Under the name of Linota fringillirostris Bonaparte described (Monogr. des
Loxiens, p. 45, pi. 49) a bird said to come from Nepaul. I t appears, however,
to be unknown to Indian ornithologists. Some authors refer it to the common
Linnet, to which, even if it be a good species, it must be nearly allied. Syrian
specimens of the Linnet, it may here be remarked, have been looked on as
forming a distinct species and called by Ehreuberg Fringilla bella.
A very fine male in full summer-dress has the bill of a
bluish lead-colour but paler at the base of the lower mandible
: the irides hazel: the feathers immediately above the
bill, on the lores and round the eyes, light dusky ochreous ;
those of the fore part and top of the head glossy blood-red ;
those of the rest of the head, the ear-coverts, nape and sides
of the neck, brownish-grey, more or less distinctly streaked
with a darker shade 5 the back and upper wing-coveits,
nearly uniform rich chestnut-brown ; bastard-wing and coverts
of the primaries brownish-black, edged with hair-brown ; the
primaries and secondaries dull black, outwardly edged with
white, which on the fifth, sixth and seventh is broad and
very conspicuous during flight, the secondaries are also tipped
with greyish-white j the tertials dusky, with their outer web
dull chestnut-brown ; upper tail-coverts brownish-black,
broadly edged with ochreous-white ; tail-quills black, narrowly
edged with white on the outer and broadly on the
inner web chin and throat greyish-white, streaked along the
middle with greyish-brown ; breast glossy rose-red, passing
into light chestnut-brown on the sides of the body ; belly
and lower tail-coverts dull white; flanks yellowish-brown :
legs, toes and claws, brown.
Such an example as is above described is not very often
to be met with. Most commonly the fine carmine of the
cap and of the breast is replaced by a brownish lake-red,
clouded with rufous-brown—the feathers on those parts not
having wholly shed their fringe of the latter coloui , biown
prevails on the occiput and neck, and pale biownish-ochie on
the throat and belly, while the back is darker ; but it would
seem that the red tints continue to brighten as the summer
proceeds until the whole plumage is changed at the autumnal
moult.*
In autumn and winter the bill is brownish horn-colour:
the crimson wholly disappears from the cap and the breast j
the feathers of the head, cheeks and ear-coverts, are dark
* Wkat is known among birdcatchers as tke “ lemon ”, “ saffron ’ or
“ sulpkur ” -breasted Linnet occurs not nnfrequently near Brighton, Mr. Rowley
thinks in the proportion of about one to fifty. In this the crimson of the breast
is.replaced by a fine lemon-yellow.