diff --git a/examples/cluster/plot_digits_linkage.py b/examples/cluster/plot_digits_linkage.py
index e13e83047fee3..730f85c543356 100644
--- a/examples/cluster/plot_digits_linkage.py
+++ b/examples/cluster/plot_digits_linkage.py
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@
 
 from sklearn import manifold, datasets
 
-X, y = datasets.load_digits(return_X_y=True)
+digits = datasets.load_digits()
+X, y = digits.data, digits.target
 n_samples, n_features = X.shape
 
 np.random.seed(0)
@@ -50,13 +51,13 @@ def plot_clustering(X_red, labels, title=None):
     X_red = (X_red - x_min) / (x_max - x_min)
 
     plt.figure(figsize=(6, 4))
-    for i in range(X_red.shape[0]):
-        plt.text(
-            X_red[i, 0],
-            X_red[i, 1],
-            str(y[i]),
-            color=plt.cm.nipy_spectral(labels[i] / 10.0),
-            fontdict={"weight": "bold", "size": 9},
+    for digit in digits.target_names:
+        plt.scatter(
+            *X_red[y == digit].T,
+            marker=f"${digit}$",
+            s=50,
+            c=plt.cm.nipy_spectral(labels[y == digit] / 10),
+            alpha=0.5,
         )
 
     plt.xticks([])