[Imitative, from the note of the bird.] A species of linnet, Linota flavirostris or L. montium, found in hilly and moorland districts in the northern parts of Britain and in Scandinavia, and elsewhere as a winter visitant; also called Mountain Linnet or Twite-finch.
1562. Turner, Baths, Pref. Flockinge byrdes … linnettes, goldfinches, sparrowes and twyes [? twytes].
1676. Grew, Musæum, Anat. Stomach & Guts, viii. 36. The Twite or Avicula Anadavadensis.
1773. Barrington, in Phil. Trans., LXIII. 282, note. The London bird-catchers also sell … the yellow hammer, twite and brambling as singing birds.
1815. Stephens, in Shaw, Gen. Zool., IX. 521. Twite Finch.
1876. Smiles, Sc. Natur., xiii. (ed. 4), 260. The Twite … bred in suitable localities round the loch.
1894. R. B. Sharpe, Handbk. Birds Gt. Brit., I. 43. The Twite is a moorland species…. In winter it migrates south in large flocks, which frequent the neighbourhood of the coast, and enliven the marshes with their twittering song.
