Thk Lesser Redpoll 79 



Siskin as above described. Tliey are exceedingly tame, and may be very closely 

 watched as tliey cluster like bees on some hanging sprays, searching for buds, 

 and keeping up an incessant twittering music, pleasant enough, but not by any 

 means so melodious as that of the Siskin." 



Speaking of the nesting of the Lesser Redpoll in various parts of Norfolk, 

 Henry Stevenson says: — "In these localities, the nests have been mostly found 

 in the apple and clierr}- trees, but Mr. Alfred Newton in a communication to r^Ir. 

 Hewitson (Eggs British Birds, 3rd Ed.) remarks that near Thetford, where it also 

 breeds yearly, the nests are placed ' close to the trunk of the tree in plantations 

 of young larch and firs of no great height,' though he once found one at least 

 sixt}' feet from the ground, and placed near the outer end of a branch." 



In his "Notes on the Birds of Donegal," (Zoologist, 1891, p. 336) H. C. Hart 

 says of Lesser Redpolls : — " I have noted them in IVIay settling themselves about 

 Glenalla in small flocks, and scattering to breed. About Rathmullan and Carra- 

 blagh they are also frequent in summer. In winter these birds come to roost, 

 with several other species, every night in the plantations round ni}- house at 

 Carrablagh, where there is the best shelter for several miles. ' Very common 

 about Killybegs in the breeding season. Have known four nests in the hedge- 

 rows along the first mile of the Donegal road from here, in the same season.' — 

 (A.B.)." 



Speaking of the species as observed by him in Wales, E. A. Swainson, of 

 Brecon, says: — "I have noticed it every summer here for some years, but this 

 season (1891) it has been unusually common, and I have often heard its musical 

 little trill and triple flight-note about the alder swamps and adjacent hedges. In 

 June last I found two nests of this bird, placed in honeysuckle growing in tall 

 hedges, each containing fresh eggs. Both nests had the usual lining of white 

 down, but one was peculiar in having a quantit}' of honeysuckle bark-strips inter- 

 woven amongst the grass round the outside of the nest. This beautiful little nest 

 contained four eggs, of a bright blue-green, blotched, two of them very boldly, 

 with reddish-brown." 



As a cage-bird the Lesser Redpoll is usually a great favourite, chiefly on 

 account of its tameness and a certain amount of reasoning capacity which it 

 possesses, whereby it has discovered, under the pressure of hunger and thirst, that 

 it can pull up with its beak and hold with its claw little pails or waggons con- 

 taining its food or w-ater : it is by no means the only bird which has been taught 

 this senseless trick, but many thoughtless bird-lovers seem to consider that all 

 captives (even birds) ought to be compelled to work for their living. I have seen 

 the process of teaching this bird in all its stages, and consider it anything but kind. 



