THE LESSER REDPOLL. 63 



Juvenile (Plate 2). Male and female. Crown, nape, and 

 hind-neck dark brown, feathers edged greyish-white ; mantle 

 darker with more huffish-brown edgings ; rump huffish-white 

 streaked black-brown ; upper tail-coverts same but more dark 

 buff ; ear-coverts brownish-buff streaked dark brown ; chin and 

 lores greyish-black ; sides of neck, throat, breast, and flanks 

 buffish-white streaked black-brown ; belly and under tail-coverts 

 greyish-white ; tail and \vings as in adult but fringes of inner 

 secondaries and tips to wing-coverts paler whitish-buff. Much 

 resembling adult female in worn summer-plumage but with no 

 crimson on crown, much less black on chin, and more dark streaks 

 on throat and breast. 



First vrinter and summer. Male. Like adult female but 

 almost always with a trace of pink on rump and usually with a 

 trace on cheeks, whereas this is more exceptional in female. 

 Female. Like adult female. The juvenile body-feathers, wing- 

 coverts, and sometimes one or two inner secondaries are moulted 

 in Aug.-Sep., but not primary-coverts, rest of remiges, or 

 rectrices. 



Measurements and structure. <$ wing 67-73 mm., tail 47-55, 

 tarsus 13-15, bill from skull 8.5-10 (12 measured). $ wing 63-69. 

 Primaries : 1st minute and hidden, 3rd longest, 2nd and 4th some- 

 times equal to it, sometimes 1-2 mm. shorter, 5th 2-5 shorter, 

 6th 9-10 shorter ; 3rd to 5th emarginated outer webs. Secondaries 

 between 9th and 10th primaries, tips square, slightly notched. 

 Tail fairly deeply forked. Bill thick and deep at base tapering 

 sharply to point. Nostrils covered by short bristle-like feathers 

 and similar ones at gape. 



Soft 'parts. Bill yellow with dark brown tip and upper-part 

 of upper mandible ; legs, feet, and iris dark brown. 



CHARACTERS AND ALLIED FORMS. Darkest, most tawny, and 

 smallest form. C. I. linaria greyer and larger, C. I. rostrata very 

 similar in coloration but still larger and with very heavily streaked 

 flanks, C. h. hornemanni and C. h. exilipes very pale upper -parts, 

 unstreaked rump and purer white under-parts. All forms distin- 

 tinguished from Twite and Linnet at all ages by black or blackish 

 chin. 



FIELD-CHARACTERS. Resembles other Redpolls in its dark crimson 

 fore-head, but differs from them in its small size, more rufescent 

 coloration and buff not white wing-bars ; from Twite in its 

 rotund shape and shorter tail. From autumn to spring roams 

 country in closely -packed flocks, feeding upon seeds of birches, 

 alders and (less often) of herbaceous plants, especially composites. 

 In its acrobatic postures and continuous twitter resembles Siskin, 

 with which it frequently associates. In breeding-season less in 

 evidence and easily overlooked, but for its curious and 

 characteristic love-flight. Song, a frequently repeated rippling 



