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THE LESSER REDPOLL AS A BREEDING SPECIES 

 IN BERKSHIRE. 



BY 



Major F. W. PROCTOR, M.B.O.U. 



Ik the "Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club" 

 for June, 1905, and in the "Avicultural Magazine" for 

 August, 1905, I recorded the fact that the Lesser Redpoll 

 •(Linota rufescens) was quite abundant that season as a 

 breeding species in East Berkshire, and that I had found 

 a number of nests with eggs and young in May, June, 

 and July. 



Li the nesting seasons of 1906 and 1907 I also found 

 many more nests, and have now ample evidence to prove 

 that the birds have become resident in varying numbers 

 in this part of Berkshire. 



Previous to 1905 I had only once found the nest in the 

 -county — in Maidenhead thicket, wliere a nest built four 

 feet from the ground in a furze bush contained five 

 fresh eggs on May 14th, 1897. The year before, in the 

 first week in May, I also found a nest with three incubated 

 eggs at Byfleet, in Surrey, not far from the Berkshire 

 border. 



The Lesser Redpoll's breeding haunts in this county 

 are chiefl}^ in the numerous rod beds near the Thames and 

 its tributaries, or near water. The Thames from near 

 Windsor to, say, Reading runs a course of, roughly, 

 forty miles, forming by its bank the boundary of East 

 Berkshire ; and, if one draws a straight line from Reading 

 to Windsor on the map, the area enclosed between this 

 line and the river will indicate the district within which, 

 io my personal knowledge, the bird breeds. 



Outside this area Mr. Heatley Noble has kindly supplied 



