LESSER REDPOLL. 73 



district watered bj the Wyre, it is rarer, and in Furness 

 Mr. W. A. Durnford has not observed it personally, 

 though he believes it occurs at times. High hedges, 

 and the forks of fruit- and other trees are the favourite 

 situations for its nest, which is usually a very neat and 

 tidy structure, though not invariably so, as I have seen 

 one now and then built in a most slovenly manner. 

 The birds are exceedingly solicitous if the nest be 

 approached, and hop about, plaintively chirping, within 

 less than arm's length of the intruder. The Lesser 

 Eedpoll brings up two lots of young ; the first eggs, 

 which number five or six, being laid the third week in 

 May, and the construction of the second nest being 

 commenced before the young of the first have flown.* 



TWITE. 



LiNOTA FLAViRosTRis (Linnasus). 



Local Names — Manx Linnet, Tricefinch. 



Eesident ; occurring on open moorlands, whether at a 

 high or low level, and breeding as commonly on the 

 South Lancashire mosses as in more elevated districts. 

 On the moors of the eastern border it is numerous, but 

 near Colne it is now much rarer than it used to be, and 

 on Pendle Hill it only breeds occasionally. In 1838 Dr. 



* [Mealy Redpoll, Linota linaria (Linn.). Mr. R. J. Howard 

 writes : — " I am convinced that this bird was occasionally caught 

 on Mellor Moor, near Blackburn, about twenty years ago. Joseph 

 Ward, oiu: wood-bailiff, who takes much interest in cage-birds, 

 says that when catching Lesser Redpolls he got a few larger and 

 greyer birds with white wing-bars. He at once recognized the 

 bird when I showed him a skin of the Mealy Redpoll in winter 

 plumage." — Ed.] >% 



