THE LESSER REDPOLL. 73 



Family FR1NGILLID&. Subfamily FRINGILLIN&. 



THE LESSER REDPOLL. 



Acanthis rufescens, VlEILLOT. 



OCCURS in Western Europe, and probably breeds in some of the mountains 

 of the South- West ; one nest having been obtained from the Veglio Alps, 

 in Italy, about 7,000 feet above the sea-level. 



In Great Britain this Redpoll is resident, breeding most freely in the north 

 of England and Ireland, and in well-timbered localities in Scotland, more particu- 

 larly in plantations of birch. This bird is, however, by no means restricted to 

 the north of England, or Ireland, during the breeding- season ; its nest having 

 been found in most of the southern counties to the east of Somerset : in Kent I 

 believe it breeds regularly, though not abundantly, every year.* 



The upper surface of the adult male in breeding plumage is ruddy olive- 

 brown, longitudinally streaked on each feather with blackish ; wings and tail 

 darker brown, with pale margins ; innermost secondaries broadly margined ; median 

 and greater coverts with broad huffish tips ; crown bright satiny crimson in front ; 

 rump washed with rosy red ; lores and centre of throat black ; sides of head and 

 throat golden olive-brown ; breast rose-red ; sides and flanks golden olive-brown, 

 streaked with blackish ; belly white, stained with buffish : beak ochreous yellow, 

 dark brown at the tip of the upper mandible ; feet blackish-brown ; iris hazel. 

 The female is slightly smaller than the male, with a broader crown ; upper parts 

 slightly darker ; rump and breast without rose-red colouration ; the under parts 

 also somewhat more streaked than in the male. The young nearly resemble the 

 female, but have no red on the crown. After the autumn moult the rose-colouring 

 disappears, but towards the spring it gradually reappears in the feathers without a 

 moult : this reproduction of bright colouring does not, however, take place in 

 caged Redpolls, but, where they are confined in large well-ventilated sunny aviaries, 

 it does in the first season. 



In its habits, haunts, food, and song, the Lesser Redpoll nearly resembles the 

 Mealy type : its nest, which is placed in the fork of a tree, a hawthorn, or goose- 



* E. A. Swainson (Zoologist, 1891, p. 357) records the fact that this species breeds every year near Brecon 

 in Wales. 



VOL. II. N" 



