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THE LESSER REDPOLL IN SUSSEX. 



BY 

 J. WALPOLE-BOND. 



In his " Birds of Sussex " (1891, p. 134), the late Mr. Borrer 

 wrote of this species (Linota rufescens) that "it is seldom 

 met with in the Weald, and I have but once seen it there." 

 Beyond this rather unconvincing statement he has nothing 

 further to add about its status, except to mention that lt it 

 is often captured in very large numbers in clap-nets, and, 

 at the time of immigration, it has frequently been taken 

 in small traps on the roofs of the houses in Brighton and 

 Hastings." Then, writing of its nesting, he continues, 

 " I have never heard of its having done so in the county 

 in a truly wild state. Mr. Booth, however, mentioned 

 that a few nests were found in alders and willows in 1869 

 near Brighton ; he supposes from the worn and faded 

 appearance of the birds that they had escaped from con- 

 finement." Mr. Booth was a capital and expert field- 

 ornithologist, yet I doubt if he was correct in this 

 instance, seeing that Lesser Redpolls often look worn 

 and faded during nesting operations. 



Now, whether it is that, during the past seventeen 

 years, the bird has kept on gradually increasing in Sussex, 

 or whether it is that it was formerly overlooked, I know 

 not, but at the present day, at all events, the Lesser 

 Redpoll is a resident in Sussex, though, of course, very 

 much commoner and more widely distributed in winter 

 than in summer. In fact, during the winter there is 

 hardly a district in the county where it does not put in 

 a roving appearance from time to time. In the breeding 

 season, however, things are somewhat different. For, 

 although it nests regularly, either in scattered pairs or, 

 and more usually, from two to eight pairs together in a 

 very restricted radius of ground, in a goodly number of 

 spots in the wooded districts, it is ever most partial to 

 the Weald. I could enumerate quite a number of locali- 



