204 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
and is mixed with down from the catkins of the 
willow. 
The Lesser Redpole is almost, if not quite, the 
smallest of our Finches. It has the beak yellowish 
brown, the tip being dark horn-colour ; irides dusky 
brown; there is a crimson spot on the forehead at 
all times of the year; the rest of the head and nape 
are light yellowish brown, streaked with dark brown : 
cheeks and ear-coverts yellowish brown; back and 
scapulars nearly the same as the head, but a shade 
darker, and the markings are larger; on the rump 
the light markings become nearly white and yellow- 
ish again on the tail-coverts; the wing-coverts are 
dusky brown, tipped with dull brownish white, 
which in the two sets of wing-coverts make two light 
bars across the wing; the quills are dusky brown, 
very slightly edged with yellowish white ; the tertials 
are more broadly margined; tail dusky brown; chin 
black; breast and flanks light yellowish brown, 
streaked mostly on the flanks with dusky; belly and 
under tail-coverts nearly white; legs, toes and claws 
brown. In spring the breast becomes a beautiful 
pink, which colour extends itself over the flanks and 
up the side of the neck nearly to the eye: as the 
spring advances this colour probably becomes 
brighter, as Yarrell calls it “vermilion,” but the 
colour on the breast. of my bird, killed in 
March, is by no means so bright as that, nor is it 
like any of the shades of colour on the breast of 
