48 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



no black on the throat ; under surface white, with a little yellow 

 on the abdomen ; breast and flanks spotted with broad marks 

 of black. 



Range in Great Britain. Local during the breeding season, 

 nesting generally in England, as Mr. Howard Saunders points 

 out, "north of a line drawn through Shropshire, Leicester- 

 shire, and Norfolk ; locally in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire ; 

 sparingly in Gloucestershire and along the upper part of 

 the Thames Valley; and more frequently than is generally 

 supposed in the counties of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent." In 

 the Southern Counties it is very local as a breeding bird, and in 

 the extreme south-west is rare at any time. In winter it is 

 more generally distributed over Great Britain, and large num- 

 bers are caught on the autumn and spring migrations. 



Range outside the British Islands. The Lesser Redpoll is a 

 bird of Western Europe, but nests in the Alpine regions of 

 Italy, Savoy, and Styria. It is also found breeding in France, 

 Belgium, Holland, and Western Germany, and has once been 

 known to nest in Heligoland. 



Habits. In winter it frequents the birch and alder trees, 

 and was formerly quite common in the Thames Valley in 

 winter, in company with Siskins and Goldfinches. It is now, 

 however, not nearly so common near London during the winter 

 months as it used to be. Its ways of life are very similar to 

 those of the Siskin. 



Nest. A pretty and compact little cup-shaped structure, 

 composed of moss and grass-stems, with a few twigs, and lined 

 with vegetable down and hair, with some feathers. 



Eggs. Three to six in number, bluish, spotted with red, 

 sometimes clouding round the larger end, with overlying spots 

 of purplish brown dotted about the latter. Axis, o'6 inch ; 

 diam., 0^4. 



THE SPARROWS. GENUS PASSER. 



Passer, Briss., Orn., iii., p. 71 (1760). 



Type, P. domesticus Linn. 



In the genus Passer and the rest of the Finches to be 

 treated of, the bill is much more swollen and "globose," the 



