Linnet
a very common and wellknown song-bird, frequenting all Europe S. of 64°, and in Asia extending to Turkestan. It is a winter visitor to Egypt and Abyssinia, and is found in and Madeira. In autumn and winter the 70,000. and Madeira. In autumn and winter the plumage is brown; in the breeding season the breast and head of both sexes becomes a crimson-red, varying only in degree. The (later) generic and specific names have reference to the fond ness of the bird for the seeds of flax and hemp. It is popularly known, according ness of the bird for the seeds of flax and to its sex and the season of the year, as the red, gray, or brown linnet.