3 88 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
The Redpolls. 
or pied, but the most beautiful variety is of a cinnamon-brown which harmonises 
with the rose-coloured breast. The male linnet is warm reddish brown above; 
the forehead, fore-neck, and chest, being crimson; and the breast and under-parts 
dull buffy white. 
By some ornithologists the lesser redpoll ( L . rufescens ) is 
regarded as a variety of the mealy redpoll ( L. linaria) of Northern 
Europe, the former being chiefly confined as a breeding species to the British Isles 
and parts of the Alps, though it has also nested on the island of Heligoland. The 
lesser redpoll is an early breeder, selecting a variety of trees to contain its nest, 
including alder, hazel, crab, birch, willow, and walnut; as many as five nests 
having been seen at once in a single hawthorn hedge. The height from the ground 
at which the nest is placed varies from four to twenty feet; and the composition 
of the nest also varies, the exterior generally consisting of moss and dried grass, 
with a lining of beautiful down from the catkin of the willow; but we have seen 
nests composed of dead fir twigs, and others built of hawthorn stems. The nest is 
often lined with fine grass and hairs, together with a few feathers; but one was 
composed exclusively of cotton-waste. 
Much less liable to exhibit white or pied phases of plumage than the linnet, 
the lesser redpoll is occasionally of a nearly uniform cinnamon-brown. In captivity 
it interbreeds with the canary, but the offspring of this cross are small and 
insignificant brown birds, devoid of the fine musical powers which most canary 
males possess. The mealy redpoll is light brown above, with dark centres to the 
feathers; the forehead being dark crimson, while the throat and breast are suffused 
with rosy pink, especially in the breeding-season. The small insular form of 
redpoll, which for many years was supposed to breed only in Great Britain, differs 
from the former bird in being smaller and of a more reddish colour. The sexes 
are generally alike, but the female does not assume the rosy tint upon the breast. 
The snow-finches form a small group possessing the characteristic 
form of the true finches, but with the long wings falling short of 
the tail by less than the length of the metatarsus. Chocolate or reddish brown 
appears to predominate in the plumage of this group, often associated with rose- 
colour, but the type of the genus is conspicuously pied with white. Snow-finches 
are chiefly found in the mountains of Central Asia, but some species range over 
the northern parts of Siberia, Japan, and Northern China. The best known 
is the common snow-finch, of the mountains of Southern Europe, and ranging 
eastwards to Palestine, but replaced in Persia, Turkestan, and Afghanistan by the 
eastern snow-finch. 
The common snow-finch (Montifringilla nivalis) breeds in the 
highest regions of the mountain ranges of Central Europe, adapting 
its habits to the desolate regions in which it passes the summer; and we owe to 
Mr. Scott Wilson the following account of its habits. “ It was observed at a greater 
height than any other Alpine bird. At the foot of the Lammern glacier, seven 
thousand six hundred feet, we found it breeding at the summit of the Furka Pass, 
as well as at the Gemmi. It lays about the end of May or the beginning of June, 
at a time when the ground in these Alpine regions is entirely covered with snow; 
from which cause I suppose it is obliged to place its nest under the roofs of 
Snow-Finches. 
Common 
Snow-Finch. 
