THE LESSER REDPOLL IN SUSSEX. 23 



and the end of the month I found several with fresh eggs. 

 Yet, in 1907, in much the same district, I knew of two 

 nests on June 17th, one containing big nestlings, the 

 other which the young left that very day, and this in 

 spite of the backwardness of the season. Occasionally 

 a second brood is reared late in July, but, of course, in 

 a different nest. 



As the haunt is varied, so is the position of the nest. 

 Some examples — and they are ever the neatest — may 

 be found in hedgerows, either in a thorn or a sloe bush, 

 sometimes as much as eight feet from the ground, but 

 more usually from two to four. At other times they are 

 in the " crotch" of an alder by the stream ; in a hedgerow 

 elm or in a furze bush. Yet, in Sussex at all events, 

 most nests are built as high up as possible in sapling 

 conifers, birches, oaks, or beeches of from nine to eighteen 

 feet high. They are always in a " crotch," and, as a 

 further protection, portions of the nest material are 

 often woven round the branches or twigs forming the 

 " crotch." I have also seen nests at the end of tapering fir, 

 larch, and holm-oak boughs, though in this case the trees 

 have been lofty and of big girth. In one locality (in 

 Sussex) all the nests are in stripling larches, some of 

 which are really tall, either against the bole, resting on 

 some tiny sprigs, or higher up on a branch projecting 

 from the main stem, when it lies against the bole or as 

 much as a foot away from it. 



The nest, though exquisitely neat internally, always 

 has rather a rough, not to say straggling, exterior. It 

 varies somewhat in composition, of which the following 

 notes, relating to four nests, will give a fair impression. 

 The first is a very typical example, and is made of a good 

 many slender twigs, fibrous rootlets, dry grass, and 

 a little of the same material in a green condition, and a few 

 flakes of moss, wholly lined with vegetable down. The 

 second shows dried grass and plenty of greyish-green tree 

 lichen externally, whilst the finishing off is first a layer 

 of horsehair in strands, then a pad of vegetable down, 



