230 OUR FAVOURITE SONG BIRDS 



for many years in the same Yorkshire haunt of this 

 charming little bird ; indeed it used to nest every 

 season within a couple of hundred yards of my door, 

 we were therefore thoroughly familiar with its song ; 

 and yet, as so often happens, we differed somewhat 

 in our estimate of its musical qualities. He describes 

 it as a short and monotonous trill like the rattling of 

 loose cog-wheels ! We should rather compare it to 

 that of the Linnet, a short twittering musical song 

 in which some of the notes are particularly sweet 

 and charming. We have stood and listened to the 

 song of this Redpole times without number, and at a 

 distance of but a few paces from the singer, and this 

 is our matured opinion of it. The Lesser Redpole 

 does not warble in concert to anything like the 

 extent the Linnet does, and its voice is hushed as 

 soon as the young are reared. 



Although this Redpole pairs annually we have 

 repeatedly remarked its great attachment to certain 

 spots, in which to nest. Its breeding-places depend 

 a good deal upon the nature of the country which it 

 frequents. In agricultural districts the hedge-rows 

 are the chosen places ; in wilder localities, birch 

 coppices, larch plantations, and thickets of bramble 

 and briar, especially on the banks of the upland 

 streams. Generally the nest is built at no great 

 height, and a fork in the larger branches Is the 

 usual site. We have found It, however, as many as 

 fifty feet above the ground in the tallest trees, 



