L I N L I N 075 larger portraits, such as the likenesses of Mulready, Whately, Peel, and Carlyle. Several of his portraits he engraved with his own hand in line and mezzotint. He also painted many subjects like the St John Preaching, the Covenant of Abraham, and the Journey to Emmaus, in which, while the landscape background is usually pro- j minently insisted upon, the figures are yet of sufficient size ! and importance to supply the title of the work. But it is mainly in connexion with his long series of paintings of , pure landscape that his name is known to the public. ! When he was only seventeen, his Removing Timber carried ! off the fifty-guinea prize offered by the British Institution | for the best landscape, and for many years Linnell was a j regular contributor to the exhibitions of that body, and to j those of the Royal Academy and the Society of Painters : in Oil and Water Colours. His works commonly deal : with some scene of typical uneventful English landscape, j which is made impressive by a gorgeous effect of sunrise or j sunset. They are full of true poetic feeling, and are rich | and glowing in colour. His art proved exceptionally remunerative ; he was able to command very large prices for his pictures, and about 1850 he purchased a property at Redhill, Surrey, where he resided till his death, on the 20th of January 1882, surrounded by his children two of them artists like himself and his children s children, and painting with unabated power till within the last few years of his life. His leisure was greatly occupied with a study of the Scriptures in the original, and he published several pamphlets and larger treatises of Biblical criticism. Among his literary productions are a work on The Misnam ing of the Scripture the Old and New Testament, 1856 ; The Lord s Day the Day of the Lo7 d, 1859 ; a pamphlet on The Ascension Sacrifice of the Old Testament, 1864 ; and one on The Royal Academy a National Institution, 1869. A word should be said regarding Linnell s connexion with William Bhxke. He was one of the best friends and kindest patrons of the great visionary artist. He gave him the two largest commissions he ever received for single series of designs <150 for drawings and engravings of The Inventions to the Book of Job, and a like sum for those illustrative of Dante. LIXNET, Anglo-Saxon Linete and Linet-ivige, whence seems to have been corrupted the old Scottish " Lintquhit," and the modern northern English " Lintwhite," originally a somewhat generalized bird s name, but latterly specialized for the FringUla cannabina of Linnoeus, the Linota canna- bina of recent ornithologists. This is a common and well- known song-bird, frequenting almost the whole of Europe south of lat. 64, and in Asia extending to Turkestan. In Africa it is known as a winter visitant to Egypt and Abyssinia, and is abundant at all seasons in Barbary, as well as in the Canaries and Madeira. Though the fondness of this species for the seeds of flax (Linum) and hemp (Cannabis) has given it its common name in so many European languages, 1 it feeds largely, if not chiefly, in P>ritain on the seeds of plants of the order Composite, especially those growing on heaths and commons. As these waste places have been gradually brought under the plough, and improved methods of cultivation have been applied to all arable land, in England and Scotland particularly, the haunts and means of subsistence of the Linnet have been slowly but surely curtailed, and hence of late years its numbers have undergone a very visible diminution through out Great Britain, and its diminution has also been aided by the detestable practice of netting it in spring for it is a popular cage-bird so popular indeed as to require no special description. According to its sex, or the season of the year, it is known as the Red, Grey, or Brown Linnet, 1 E.g., French, Linotte ; German, Ildnjling ; Swedish, Ililmpling. and "by the earlier English writers on birds, as well as in many localities at the present time, these names have been held to distinguish at least two species ; but there is now no question among ornithologists on this point, though the conditions under which the bright crimson-red colouring of the breast and crown of the cock s spring and summer plumage is donned and doffed may still be open to discus sion. Its intensity seems due, however, in some degree at least, to the weathering of the brown fringes of the feathers which hide the more brilliant hue, and it is to be remarked that in the Atlantic islands examples are said to retain their gay tints all the year round, while throughout Europe there is scarcely a trace of them visible in autumn and winter; but, beginning to appear in spring, they reach their greatest brilliancy towards midsummer ; and it is also to be remarked that they are never assumed by examples in confinement. The Linnet begins to breed in April, the nest being generally placed in a bush at no great distance from the ground. It is nearly always a neat structure composed of fine twigs, roots, or bents, and lined with wool or hair. The eggs, often six in number, are of a very pale blue marked with reddish or purplish brown. Two broods seem to be commonly brought off in the course of the season, and towards the end of summer the birds the young of course greatly preponderating in number collect in large flocks and move to the sea-coast, whence a large proportion depart for more southern latitudes. Of these emigrants some return the following spring, and are invariably recognizable by the more advanced state of their plumage, the effect presumably of having wintered in countries enjoying a brighter and hotter sun. Nearly allied to the foregoing species is the Twite, so named from its ordinary call-note, or Mountain-Linnet, the Linota Jlavirostris, or L. montiam of ornithologists, which can be at once distinguished by its yellow bill, longer tail, and reddish-tawny throat. This bird never assumes any crimson on the crown or breast, but the male has the rump at all times tinged more or less with that colour. In the breeding-season it seems to affect exclusively hilly and moorland districts from Herefordshire northward, in which it partly or wholly replaces the common Linnet, but is very much more local in its distribution, and, except in the British Islands and some parts of Scandinavia, it only appears as an irregular visitant in winter. At that season it may, however, be found in large flocks in the low-lying countries, and as regards England even on the sea-shore. In Asia it seems to be represented by a kindred form, L. brevirostris. The REDPOLLS (q.v.) form a little group placed by many authorities in the genus Linota, to which they are un questionably closely allied, but in this work they may be considered later ; and, as before stated (Fixcn, vol. xi. p. 192), the Linnets seem on the other hand to be related to the birds of the genus J.< <<>,<ticte, the species of which, in number uncertain, inhabit the northern parts of Xorth- West America and of Asia. The most recent list of the birds of the former country by Mr Ridgway (Bidl. U. S.
Ifat. Museum, No. 21, 1881) includes four species and
one local race, of which there is need here to mention, only L. tephrocotis. It is generally of a chocolate colour, tinged on some parts with pale crimson or pink, and has the crown of the head silvery-grey. Another species, L. arctoa, was formerly said to have occurred in North America, but its proper home is in the Kurile Islands or Kamchatka. This has no red in its plumage. The birds of the genus Leucosticte seem to be more terrestrial in their habit than those of Linota, perhaps from their having been chiefly observed where trees are scarce ; but it is possible that the mutual relationship of the two groups is more apparent than real. Allied to Leucosticte is Monttfrinffilla t
