Nest, &e. 
280 PASSERES. FRINGILLA. REDPOLE 
Lesser Red-headed Linnet or Redpole, Br. Zool. No. 132. t. 54..—Arct- 
Zool. 2. No. 305. 75-— Will. (Ang.) 260. t. 46.—Lath. Syn. 3. p. 305.—Id. 
Sup. p. 167.—Lewin’s Br. Birds, 2. t. 85 —Mont. Ornith. Dict. 62.— 
Wale. Syn. 2. t. 223.—Pult. Cat. Dorset. p. 12.-—Bewick’s Br. Birds, p- 
t. 174.—Shaw’s Zool. v. 9. p. 519. t. 70. copy from Bewick.—Low’s Faun. 
Orcad. p. 64. 2 
Arctic Finch, Arct. Zool. 2. p. 379. A.—Lath. Syn. 3. p. 260. 12. 
Eis bird is considerably less than the common and moun- 
tain linnets *, and although, like them, subject to a partial 
change of colour at a particular season, may be readily dis- 
tinguished from them, as well by other peculiar characteris- 
tics as by its inferiority of size. It is only known in the 
southern parts of Britain as a winter visitant, and is at that 
period gregarious, and frequently taken in company with the 
other species by the bird-catchers, by whom it is called the 
Stone Redpole. In the northern counties of England, and 
in Scotland and its isles, it is resident through the year. It 
retires, during the summer, to the underwoed that covers the 
bases of many of our mountains and hills, and that often 
fringes the banks of their precipitous streams; m which se- 
questered situations it breeds.—The nest is built in a bush or 
low tree (such as willow, alder, or hazel) of moss and the 
stalks of dry grass, intermixed with down from the catkin of 
the willow, which also forms the lining, and renders it a par- 
ticularly soft and warm receptacle for the eggs and young. 
From this substance bemg a constant material of the nest, it 
follows that the young are preduced late in the season, and 
are seldom able to fly before the end of June or the begin- 
ning of July. ‘The eggs are four or five in number; their 
colour pale bluish-green, spotted with orange-brown, princi- 
pally towards the larger end. In winter the lesser redpole 
* A large variety of this species is noticed by TEMMINcK, and which is 
sometimes met with in this country. I have accordingly represented an 
individual of this variety (Plate 53 ** Fig. 2.) from a specimen in the col- 
lection of Sir Witiiam Jarpine, Bart. In size it nearly equals the 
common linnet, but the markings and colour are those of the Lesser Red- 
pole. ( 
