MEALY AND LE?SER REDPOLLS. 65 



grass and wool, and lined with wool, hair, thistle and willow 

 down and sometimes feathers. Four to six eggs are laid in April, 

 and a second brood is usually reared. In colour they are bluish 

 white, with faint underlying greyish markings, and with a few 

 bolder reddish or purple streaks or blotches towards the larger 

 end (Plate 34). 



In breeding dress the cock Linnet is an exceedingly hand- 

 some bird. His back is warm chestnut brown ; his under 

 parts shade from fawn to almost white on the belly ; his head 

 is greyish brown with darker mottles or streaks ; but his great 

 beauty is the crimson forehead, crown and breast. White 

 edgings to the flight feathers and tail, and upper tail-coverts 

 are also noticeable. The bill at this season is lead-blue, the 

 legs and irides brown. The female is a little smaller and lacks 

 the distinctive crimson ; her general colour is duller and 

 greyer and her whites less marked, but the striations on both 

 upper and under surface are most distinct. After the autumn 

 moult, for this handsome plumage is acquired by abrasion in 

 spring, the grey margins and tips of the feathers conceal the 

 crimson of the male, and the stripes on the breast and flanks 

 are more distinct. The bill is horn-coloured, as it is in young 

 birds. The young is not unlike the female, but browner, the 

 pale edgings being more buff and the white on the under parts 

 suffused with buff; the breast is streaked and spotted with 

 brown. Length, 575 ins. Wing, 3-15 ins. Tarsus, 75 in. 



Mealy and Lesser Redpolls. Acanthis Unaria (Linn.). 



Many ornithologists separate the migratory Mealy Redpoll, 

 A. Unaria (Linn.), from our resident Lesser Redpoll (Plate 28), 

 A. cabaret (Miill) or rufescens (Vieillot), but on account of their 

 intergrading and indeterminate geographical distribution they 

 have been, and still are, subject to much controversy. The six 

 forms which have any claim to inclusion in the British list are 



Series I. F 



