The notes of this bird are very simple and melodious, and some individuals greatly excel others in their powers of song.  It is generally believed that the young males are the best singers, and that age diminishes their vocal capacity.  The greater number utter only a few strains, resembling the notes of the Warbling Fly-catcher, (Vireo gilvus,) and these are constantly repeated during the greater part of the day.  His song consists of four or five bars or strains; but there are individuals that extend them ad libitum, varying their notes after the manner of the Canary.  The latter, however, sings with more precision, and is louder and shriller in his tones.  I have not observed that this bird is more prone to sing in the morning and evening than at noonday and at all hours.

I have alluded to the fact that the finest singing-birds build their nests and seek their food either on the ground or among the shrubbery and the lower branches of trees, and that, when singing, they are commonly perched rather low.  The Linnet is an exception to this general habit of the singing-birds, and, in company with the Warbling Fly-catchers, he is commonly high up in an elm or some other tall tree, and almost entirely out of sight, when exercising himself in song.  It is this preference for the higher branches of trees that enables these birds, as well as the Golden Robin, to be denizens of the city.  Hence they may be heard singing as freely and melodiously from the trees on Boston Common as in the wild-wood or orchard in the country.

I have seen the Linnet frequently in confinement; but he does not sing so well in a cage as in a state of freedom.  His finest and most prolonged strains are delivered while on the wing.  On such occasions only does he sing with fervor.  While perched on a tree, his song is short and not greatly varied.  If you closely watch his movements when he is singing, he may be seen on a sudden to take flight, and, while poising himself in the air, though still advancing, he pours out a continued strain of melody, not surpassed by the notes of any other bird.  On account of the infrequency of these occasions, it is seldom we have an opportunity to witness a full exhibition of the musical powers of the Linnet.

The male American Linnet is crimson on the head, neck, and throat, dusky on the upper part of its body, and beneath somewhat straw-colored.  It is remarkable that a great many individuals are destitute of this color, being plainly clad, like the female.  These are supposed to be old birds, and the loss of color is attributed to age.  The same change takes place when the bird is confined.