MEALY REDPOLL 187 



the holly bushes on the beach on May 10 and 14, and 

 also a good many nests in the tussocks of coarse grass 

 growing on some sand-dunes in the direction of Eye ; 

 some of these latter nests were made right on the level 

 of the ground." In North Kent, he says : "In the 

 winter Linnets seem to find food of some sort amongst 

 the vegetation of the saltings, which is evidently to their 

 liking, for numerous small parties of these birds are 

 almost always to be seen there." 



Mr. E. F. M. Elms, in his Ornithological Notes from 

 New Bomney and Littlestone, says: "I found a curious 

 Linnet's nest (Grey Linnets they are called locally) in 

 the side of a sand-bank, and ill concealed. The four 

 eggs rested simply in the sandy cavity, and to prevent 

 them from falling out, a frail barrier of bent and dead 

 grass was constructed across the outer edge of the cup." 



MEALY EEDPOLL. 



Linota linaria (Linnseus). S.N., i., p. 322 (1766). 



The Mealy Redpoll is only an occasional and uncertain 

 winter visitor to Kent, generally coming in flocks of 

 various numbers, and keeping more or less to the higher 

 hills in the county. There are specimens in the Maid- 

 stone Museum taken at Boughton Monchelsea, on 

 March 20, 1879, by Mr. F. Smith. According to Mr. G. 

 Dowker, Mr. C. Gordon obtained it at Dover. And Mr. 

 J. E. Harting records " an unusual number of Mealy 

 Redpolls that visited the south of England towards the 

 end of 1895. At Dover the bird-catchers took as many 

 as 200 in one day." 



