THE LESSER REDPOLL. 73 
family—FRINGILLIDAE. Subfamily—FRINGILLINAE. 
THE LESSER REDPOLL. 
Acanthis rufescens, VIEILLOT. 
CCURS in Western Europe, and probably breeds in some of the mountains 
() of the South-West; one nest having been obtained from the Veglio Alps, 
in Italy, about 7,000 feet above the sea-level. 
In Great Britain this Redpoll is resident, breeding most freely in the north 
of England and Ireland, and in well-timbered localities in Scotland, more particu- 
larly in plantations of birch. This bird is, however, by no means restricted to 
the north of England, or Ireland, during the breeding-season; its nest having 
been found in most of the southern counties to the east of Somerset: in Kent I 
believe it breeds regularly, though not abundantly, every year.* 
The upper surface of the adult male in breeding plumage is ruddy olive- 
brown, longitudinally streaked on each feather with blackish; wings and tail 
darker brown, with pale margins; innermost secondaries broadly margined; median 
and greater coverts with broad buffish tips; crown bright satiny crimson in front; 
rump washed with rosy red; lores and centre of throat black; sides of head and 
throat golden olive-brown; breast rose-red; sides and flanks golden olive-brown, 
streaked with blackish; belly white, stained with buffish: beak ochreous yellow, 
dark brown at the tip of the upper mandible; feet blackish-brown; iris hazel. 
The female is slightly smaller than the male, with a broader crown; upper parts 
slightly darker; rump and breast without rose-red colouration; the under parts 
also somewhat more streaked than in the male. The young nearly resemble the 
female, but have no red on the crown. After the autumn moult the rose-colouring 
disappears, but towards the spring it gradually reappears in the feathers without a 
moult: this reproduction of bright colouring does not, however, take place in 
caged Redpolls, but, where they are confined in large well-ventilated sunny aviaries, 
it does in the first season. 
In its habits, haunts, food, and song, the Lesser Redpoll nearly resembles the 
Mealy type: its nest, which is placed in the fork of a tree, a hawthorn, or goose- 
# E, A. Swainson (Zoologist, 1891, p. 357) records the fact that this species breeds every year near Brecon 
in Wales. 
Vor. Il. N 
