3 S8 PERCHING BIRDS. 



or pied, but the most beautiful variety is of a cinnamon-brown which harmonises 



with the rose-coloured breast. The male linnet is warm reddish In-own above; 



the forehead, fore-neck, and chest, being crimson: and the breast and under-paicte 



dull huffy white. 



By some ornithologists the lesser redpoll {/.. nifetscens) is 



regarded as a variety of the mealy redpoll {L. linurln) of Northern 



Europe, the former being chiefly confined as a breeding species to the British Isles 



and parts of the Alps, though it has also nested on the island of Heligoland. The 



lesser redpoll is an early breeder, selecting a variety of trees to contain its nest, 



including alder, hazel, crab, birch, willow, and walnut ; as many as five nests 



having been seen at once in a single hawthorn hedge. The height from the ground 



at which the nest is placed varies from four to twenty feet; and the composition 



of the nest also varies, the exterior generally consisting of moss and dried grass, 



with a lining of beautiful down from the catkin of the willow ; but we have seen 



nests composed of dead fir twigs, and others built of hawthorn stems. The nest is 



often lined with fine grass and hairs, together with a few feathers ; but one was 



composed exclusively of cotton-wast' . 



Much less liable to exhibit white or pied phases of plumage than the linnet, 



the lesser redpoll is occasionally of a nearly uniform cinnamon-brown. In captivity 



it interbreeds with the canary, but the offspring of this cross are small and 



insignificant brown birds, devoid of the fine musical powers which most canary 



males possess. The mealy redpoll is light brown above, with dark centres to the 



feathers ; the forehead being dark crimson, while the throat and breast are suffused 



with rosy pink, especially in the breeding-season. The small insular form of 



redpoll, which for many years was supposed to breed only in Great Britain, differs 



from the former bird in being smaller and of a more reddish colour. The sexes 



are generally alike, but the female does not assume the rosy tint upon the breast. 



The snow-finches form a small group possessing the characteristic 

 Snow-Finches. ., . . 



form of tin true finches, but with the long wings falling short of 



the tail by less than the length of the metatarsus. Chocolate or reddish brown 

 appears to predominate in the plumage of this group, often associated with rose- 

 colour, but the type of the genus is conspicuously pied with white. Snow-finches 

 are chiefly found in the mountains of Central Asia, but some species range over 

 the northern parts of Siberia, Japan, and Northern China. The best known 

 is the common snow-finch, of the mountains of Southern Europe, and ranging 

 eastwards to Palestine, but replaced in Persia, Turkestan, and Afghanistan by the 

 eastern snow-finch 



common The common snow-finch {MontifringiMa nivalis) breeds in the 



snow-Finch, highest regions of the mountain ranges of Central Europe, adapting 

 its habits to the desolate regions in which it passes the summer ; and we owe to 

 Mr. Scott Wilson the following account of its habits. " It was observed at a greater 

 height than any other Alpine bird. At the foot of the Lammern glacier, seven 

 thousand six hundred feet, we found it breeding at the summit of the Furka Pass, 

 as well as at the Gemmi. It lays about the end of May or the beginning of June, 

 at a time when the ground in these Alpine regions is entirely covered with snow ; 

 from which cause I suppose it is obliged to place its nest under the roofs of 



