PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 73 



4. Nest and Eggs. Nesting place : sometimes in trees, as much as 40 feet 

 from the ground (Ussher and Warren), but often bushes, hedges, occasionally in 

 long heather, furze, or bracken. Nest : externally rather roughly built of twigs, 

 coarse dead grasses, moss, wool, roots, etc., neatly lined with willow-down, hair, 

 feathers. (PI. v.) By which sex the nest is built is uncertain. The eggs, 

 usually 4-5, rarely 6, in number, are easily distinguished by their dull surface 

 and deeper greenish ground colour. The markings consist of a few spots and 

 streaks of purplish brown, with underlying paler markings. (PL B.) Average 

 size of 100 eggs, -62 x -48 in. [15*9 x 12-2 mm.]. Laying begins exception- 

 ally in April, usually late in May. The hen incubates (F. E. Daniel, in litt. ; 

 J. Steele-Elliot, in litt.), but there is some evidence to show that the cock may share 

 in the task. Period of incubation 11 days (Alfred Taylor, in litt.). Sometimes 

 2 broods appear to be reared. [F. c. B. J. F. B. K.] 



5. Food. Seeds. The young are fed first with regurgitated seeds and buds, 

 later with macerated seeds and fresh buds (Bailly, Ornitk. de la Savoie) ; with 

 regurgitated seeds (Zander, Vogel MecTdenburgs). A young bird, examined June 15, 

 1894, contained larvae and fragments of a weevil (Newstead). Both parents share 

 the duty. [F. B. K.] 



6. Song Period. Said to sing all the year except when moulting. 



MEALY- REDPOLL [Linota flammea flammea (Linnaeus); L. linaria 

 (L.). Greater-redpoll. French, sizerin boreal ; German, Birkenzeisig or 

 Leinzeisig]. 



i. Description. Is like the lesser-redpoll, but larger, has the rump more or 

 less striated and tinged rose-red ; it lacks the rufous tint in the brown of the back. 

 Length 5 in. [127 mm.]. The hen has red on the forehead and crown only, has less 

 black on the throat, the black forehead is scarcely visible, and the general appear- 

 ance is greyer and paler. The young differ from the female in being darker, more 

 heavily striated, and lack the red. (No plate.) [w. p. p.] 



2-3. Distribution and Migration. This lighter and larger continental 

 race is found breeding in the arctic and higher subarctic regions of Northern 

 Scandinavia and Russia, and confines its southward visits, as a rule, to the more 

 northern countries of the temperate zone. It is a common winter visitor to most 

 of the east of Great Britain, from Shetland to Durham, and is of fairly frequent 

 occurrence in other parts of the British Isles, especially on the west coasts of Scot- 

 land and Ireland. For the purposes of this note we may include also the following 



K 



