FINCHES 83 



one day. As in the case of the Linnet, the specific 

 name linaria, another form of linota, has reference 

 to its partiality for the seed of flax (linum). 



LESSER REDPOLL. Linota rufescens (Vieillot). Length, 

 4-25 in. ; wing, 2*75 in. ; tarsus, 0"5 in. 



The smallest of our British finches ; resident in 

 the north of England, Scotland, and Ireland ; a 

 winter visitant to the south. With regard to the 

 northern range of this species, see a note by Prof. 

 Newton, Zool, 1870, p. 2223. Yarrell's statement 

 that this bird does not breed further south than 

 Halifax, in Yorkshire, is incorrect. Mr. J. J. 

 Briggs, of King's Newton, found it nesting eight 

 miles south of Derby. Even in Yarrell's time, 

 Wolley had found it breeding annually in Notting- 

 hamshire, where in 1894 Mr. H. K. Swann found 

 three nests. Since then nests have been found in 

 Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and Leicestershire. Mr. 

 Peterson states that the Lesser Redpoll breeds com- 

 monly in Leicestershire, and throughout the entire 

 Midland district. According to Mr. H. A. Mac- 

 pherson [Zool., 1889, p. 229) it breeds in immature 

 plumage, i.e. before the male has acquired the rose- 

 pink breast of summer. 



TREE - SPARROW, Passer montanus (Linnaeus). PI. 

 13, fig. 3. Length, 5*6 in. ; wing, 2*75 in. ; tarsus, 

 0-75 in. 



A local resident, chiefly in the eastern and 

 southern counties, and migratory in autumn (Blyth, 

 Field Nat., vol. i. p. 467, and Rodd, "Birds of 



