394 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



long. The bill is short, straight, and not pointed the upper man- 

 dible might be described as somewhat arched, and towards the 

 point slightly curved downwards. Its length from forehead to tip 

 is '32 in. (8 mm.). 



This bird is found as a breeding species in Greenland, Spitz- 

 bergen, and northern Iceland ; in the first-named country Holboll 

 found its nest from 69° N. to beyond 73° N. latitude. The bud has 

 only been met with south of its northern breeding haunts on three 

 occasions : once in France, once in England, on the 24th of April 

 1855, the example in this case being a very fine old bn-d ; and 

 the third instance is furnished by the example killed in Heligo- 

 land. 



195.— Coues' Redpoll [Sibirischer Leinfink]. 



FRINGILLA EXILIPES, Coues.^ 

 Coues' Redpnle ; Linota exilipes. Dresser, iv. 51. 



During the wonderful migration en masse of Redpolls in the 

 autumn of 1847, already referred to, this small species was very 

 abundantly represented ; and whenever after that time a repetition 

 of this jjlienomenon was observed, some one or more examples of this 

 singular little bird were invariably found to occur among the other 

 more or less numerously represented species. I have, however, only 

 succeeded in obtaining one other example — a young autumn bird 

 — since that remote date, having been the one which was shot of two 

 birds observed on the 1st of December 1891. A fair number of 

 Redpolls had, in fact, been obsei-ved from the beginning of Novem- 

 ber of the latter year ; but on the 30th of the month thousands were 

 seen, in large flocks for the most part, flying across the island with- 

 out alighting. On the day after, flocks of from thirty to fifty 

 individuals were again observed, among which occurred the two 

 birds above mentioned. 



Apart fi-om its considerably smaller size, the present species is 

 distinguished from F. linaria by the generally lighter colour of its 

 plumage. In the young autumn bird of F. exilipes in my col- 

 lection the dark stripes of the back, — which in young birds of 

 F. linaria are blackish-brown, are whitish brown-grey (weisslich 

 hraungrau), with whitish yellowish - grey {tveisslich gelbgrau) 

 edges, while the two light-coloured central streaks are pure white. 

 The brownish-grey markings on the sides of the breast are still 

 lighter in this species, besides being much blurred, and disappear- 

 ing almost entirely in the flanks; in F. linaria these streaks are 



' Linota exilipes, Coues. 



