LESSER REDPOLE. 239 
structed than that of either of the preceding birds, 
is formed of moss, intermixed with the down of 
willow catkins, which also furnishes the inside, 
lining, and seems an indispensable material. In 
procuring both this material and their food, they 
exhibit considerable scansorial powers, hanging 
and clinging to the slender twigs in all positions. 
Their song is pleasing, but contains little modula- 
tion or variety. In its extreme British distribu- 
tion, it stretches over northern Europe, and extends 
its range to the arctic portions of North America. 
■In Europe southward, M. Temminck remarks 
that it is migratory in the temperate parts, but 
in the south appears only at intervals of one or 
two years : he also records it from Japan.* 
The male, in the breeding season, has the crown 
of the head blood-red ; the sides of the neck and 
breast carmine, becoming paler on the sides and 
flanks, which are streaked with brown ; the fore- 
head is hair brown ; the whole upper parts, in- 
cluding the wings and tail, are deep umber brown ; 
the feathers on the neck and back edged with 
yellowish or grayish brown, to a greater extent in 
some species than in others ; the lower part of 
the back and rump tinted with carmine ; the wings 
are nearly uniform in tint, except a dull bar of 
pale brownish white, formed by the tips of the 
coverts being of that tint ; the throat with a black 
patch ; the centre of the belly and vent very pure 
white. In the female the colours are duller, the 
rump and breast sometimes slightly tinted with 
* Supplement, Part I. p. 268. 
T 
