78 The Lrssek REnrc^rj, 



dark brown :it the tip of the upper mandible; feet bUickish-bruw n ; iris hazeL 

 The female is slightly smaller than the male, with a broader crown ; upper parts 

 slightl}- darker; rump and breast without rose-red colouration; the under parts 

 also somewhat more streaked than in the uuile. The ^-oung ncarl_v resemble the 

 female, but have no red on the crown. After the autumn moult the rose-colouring 

 disappears, but towards the spring it gradually reappears iu the feathers without 

 a moult : this reproduction of bright colouring does not, however, take place in 

 caged Redpolls, but, where the}' are confined in large well-ventilated sunny aviaries, 

 it does iu the first season. 



In its habits, haunts, food, and song, the Lesser Redpoll nearly resembles 

 the Meal}' type : its nest, which is placed in the fork of a tree, a hawthorn, or 

 gooseberry bush, a hedge, or a large grass tussock, usually near water, is not 

 unlike a small, neatl}' formed, and very softly lined Linnet's nest ; it is firmly 

 constructed of plant-stalks, roots, moss, and drj'-grass, with hair towards the 

 interior ; the lining consisting of pure white willow-down, wool or occasionally 

 very fine grasses and feathers. The eggs, which number from four to six, are 

 either pale blue, or bluish-white, with dark purplish-brown surface spots, and 

 sometimes short linear dashes and underlying blood-red spots and speckles ; some 

 eggs are spotted nearly' all over, and others principally at the larger end, an 

 imperfect zone of spots is often present at this extremity : there is considerable 

 variation iu size. 



I have not only seen and heard the Lesser Redpoll in Kent during the breeding 

 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 Alurston,* and once from a hawthorn 

 bush on marshy land, at Kemsley ; the last-mentioned nest was less firm than 

 usual, though compact, the body of it being formed almost entireh' of wool, with 

 an outer thin framework of dried grass and an inner lining of hair.f 



Lord Lilford (Birds of Northamptonshire, Vol. L P- 196) observes: — "About 

 Lilford these birds appear occasionally in flocks of from Iwenty to fifty or sixty, 

 almost always in very severe weather, and then haunt the alders by the river-sides, 

 their habits and manner of feeding at that season much resembling those of the 



* I was unforlunate with these two nests; in one of them the egj;s were just ready to hatch, and were 

 so much injured in the attempt to blow them, that I did not preserve them: one egg of tlie second nest also 

 burst, but I saved the remainder. 



t Jlr. Wharton ("Zoologist," p. S951) also records the discovery of the nest of the Lesser Redpoll in Kent; 

 and many others have, since then, recorded its abundance as a nesting species iu this county. In the 

 "Zoologist" for 1887, p. 42S, Mr. Joseph Vine states that he found two very young birds of this specie.s, 

 dead, but quite fresh, at Highgate, iu September. One of these nestlings was taken in the flesh to the Rev. 

 H. A. Macpherson, for identification. lie told me that it could almost have flown, and had probably 

 fluttered out of the nest when alarmed by some marauder. 



