LESSER REDPOLL 189 



ing us to examine her within half a yard of herself, 

 and almost to touch her on the nest. The nest subse- 

 quently contained six eggs, exactly agreeing with the 

 description in E. Newman's Bird's Nesting; three of 

 these we still possess, the nest we left to the care of the 

 parents. The nest was composed of dead grass and a 

 little moss, and lined with horse-hair and a small quantity 

 of cow's hair ; there were no willow trees near, which 

 may account for this strange lining." 



During Dr. A. G. Butler's bird's-nesting in Kent in 

 1875, he found the " Lesser EedpoU's nest at Galium 

 Hill, near Newington, May 31. I have not only seen 

 and heard the Lesser Eedpoll in Kent during the breed- 

 ing season, but have on several occasions flushed the 

 hen bird from her nest. Twice I obtained the nest with 

 six eggs from grass tussocks growing upon narrow foot- 

 paths through marsh and pools of water at Murston, 

 and once from a hawthorn on marshy land at Kemsley." 



Mr. H. Lamb found the Lesser Redpoll breeding in 

 1893 in Maidstone Cemetery. 



According to Mr. H. Elgar, of Maidstone, the Lesser 

 Bedpoll is not at all uncommon about that neighbour- 

 hood : " I found a nest with one egg in a gooseberry 

 bush, and saw another in a damson tree at Linton a few 

 years ago. There is a nest with five eggs taken from a 

 pine tree, now in the Maidstone Museum." Mr. Meade- 

 Waldo says he " had seen a brood of young birds on 

 June 24, 1905, in Kent, and about six weeks earlier ha 

 known of several nests." 



