Peacock: The Birds of North-West Lindsey. 45 



actually at work feeding- on them. But in October, when I 

 have disturbed a party on bramble bushes, the spiders' webs 

 below the fruit heads have usually been loaded with the broken 

 husks. I should much like this observation confirmed by other 

 workers. (See under ' Lesser Redpole.') 



House-Sparrow. Passer domesticus Linn. Is everywhere, 

 driving out and taking the place of much more valuable species. 

 It is a curse wherever found. Its eggs vary very greatly in 

 colour, more so than our other common birds. 



Tree-Sparrow. Passer inontaniis Linn. Is widely but 

 thinly distributed, but is not as common with us as about York. 



Chaffinch. Fringilla ccelebs Linn. Is still plentiful, and 

 grows remarkably bold where it is protected. It makes a 

 beautiful nest, and follows its environment wonderfully closely. 

 First nests 29th March 1884 and i6th April 1900. 



Brambling. Fringilla rnontijrijigilla Linn. Rarely visits 

 us in late October. A good beech-nut year, like the present, 

 1904, seems to attract it to certain localities, like the Eastern 

 Woods before the beech trees were cut down. 



Linnet. Linota cannabiua Linn. Is generally but thinly 

 distributed in suitable places. It nests in whin bushes and 

 rough places, but is hardly common where most plentiful. ' At 

 Kirton this species grows rarer and rarer,' Mr. Hunsley says. 



Mealy Redpoll. Linota linaria Linn. I have never seen 

 this species. On the 19th to the 20th of April 1899 three birds 

 were in the Rectory g^arden at South Kelsey. They were never 

 seen again after the latter date. 



Lesser Redpole. Linota rufescens Vieillot. Is not by any 

 means rare, but at no time plentiful. I found a nest with four 

 eggs at Bottesford in June 1896. We have small flights in 

 winter in the woods. They may nearly always be found pick- 

 ing and feeding on birch-tree buds. In December 1879, while 

 watching the taking of ducks in Ashby Decoy, I and the Vicar 

 observed Redpoles and Siskins in company fairly g"orging- on 

 the birch trees. This was the largest flock of both species I 

 ever saw. 



Twite. Linota Jlavirostris Linn. Is a rare bird. I have 

 only seen one specimen, shot by Mr. Piatt at Yaddlethorpe 

 during the October migration. A few pass down the Trent 

 valley from Yorkshire nearly every year, the Vicar says, but 

 are more rarely seen on their northern passage. 



Bullfinch. Pyrrhula etiropcea Vieillot. Nests with us, but 

 not in great numbers. The orchards in winter have a great 



1906 February i. 



