The Lesser 
Redpoll. 
( 2 38 ) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
When taken directly from the nest, no 
possible confusion can arise. 
Incubation, principally performed by 
the female, lasts, for one egg, fourteen 
days, but the Lesser Redpoll, very fre¬ 
quently indeed, sits on her first laid, so 
that if, say five, are ultimately dropped, 
the period extends to eighteen days. 
The writer has proved this point up to 
the hilt, first by timing the bird from the 
first egg laid, secondly by blowing full 
clutches as soon as the last egg had been 
deposited, and thirdly by finding young 
and eggs in the same nest. 
The Lesser Redpoll is an extremely 
close sitter; sometimes, indeed, she 
may be lifted bodily off the nest or gently 
stroked. The writer has also known one 
to perch on an intruder’s hand as he 
examined the eggs, and he has seen 
another brood in the fork from which 
there had just been taken the nest, whilst 
in a third case, after the nest contain¬ 
ing one egg had been removed from its 
site, the little mother not only settled 
in it at once on its being replaced, but 
even finished her clutch and reared her 
young in safety. 
When compelled to quit the nest, the 
Redpoll, often joined by its mate, flutters 
restlessly close to an intruder, uttering 
from time to time the soft and musical, 
but plaintive, double alarm note 
“ For-ee,” “ for-ee,” but instances are 
not wanting where, especially if the eggs 
have been comparatively fresh, the sif¬ 
ting birds has flitted away without 
demonstration of any kind. 
The nest is not a very easy one to dis¬ 
cover, but the male often gives its ap¬ 
proximate site away by trilling just above 
it, either in the air, or from an adjacent 
tree or bush. He also possesses a dis¬ 
tinct song, which, if weak, is neverthe¬ 
less, very pleasing when heard at close 
quarters. It is impossible to describe 
on paper, but it, as it were, runs up and 
down the scale alternately. The writer 
has oft-times lain within a few feet of 
a little Redpoll singing to his pretty 
partner, whose dusky chin spot was just 
visible over the rim of her snug cradle, 
where she sat brooding contentedly. 
This is one of a series of articles 
appearing in the Sidcup Times on local 
bird life, by Mr. Walpole Bond. 
Birds as Inventors. 
In walking through the Patent Office 
in our complacency we realise that we 
are indeed a wonderful people; yet if we 
examine some living creature, such as a 
bird, our conceit will certainly receive a 
well-merited shock. 
The levers, the pulleys, the balls and 
sockets, of its bones, muscles, and 
joints, the self-lubricating devices, the 
automatically adjusting focus of the eye 
-—all this and more we might mention 
as having preceded by millions of years 
the incomparably rougher devices of 
human ingenuity. 
There are other and less well-known 
parts of birds which are like human 
utensils and implements. For example, 
when we go out upon the deep, crusthss 
snow of Canada, we don snow-shoes, 
which, by distributing our weight over 
a large extent of surface, prevent our 
sinking into the soft mass. 
This was an Indian invention, and as 
he may have learned to fashion his ashen 
paddle from the shape of the seeds of 
that tree, and his arrow-heads from the 
leaves of the canoe birch, so when he 
brought down a plump ruffed Grouse in 
winter and noticed its snow-shoes of 
horn, he soon applied the idea to his 
own feet. 
The long, horny fringe which grows 
out from each toe of the Grouse gives 
the snow-loving bird a chance to get at 
the seeds and berries, without which it 
would soon starve. 
