144 FRINGILLIDiE. 



borealis of Vieillot, and as such gave it in 1835 the place of 

 a good species in the third part of his ' Manuel d'Ornithologie' 

 (p. 2G4). In 1838 Bonaparte (Geogr. and Comp. List, p. 34) 

 admitted three Redpolls as European birds, Linota canescens, 

 L. borealis and L. linaria, by the first of which is meant this 

 largest form, though it is not the canescens of Mr. Gould, by 

 the second the true llnaria of Linnaeus, our Mealy Redpoll 

 just treated of, and by the third our Lesser Redpoll next 

 to be considered. And so when, in 1843, Holboll published 

 his description of Linota homemanni, he identified it with 

 the Linaria canescens, with which it should not be con- 

 founded. He gave a good description of its habits and 

 appearance, stating that it was resident in Greenland through- 

 out the year, while the other Redpoll found in that country 

 (L. linaria) was but a summer- visitant, that it did not appear 

 to breed further to the southward than lat. 69° N. and was 

 common enough even in lat. 73°, but in winter gathered in 

 large flocks which wandered over the interior. It has since 

 been said to occur occasionally on the continent of Europe, 

 and Degland mentions one in Baillon's collection which was 

 netted near Abbeville ; but the Editor can only point to a 

 single example obtained in England. This is in the collection 

 of Mr. Hancock, who has described and figured it in his 

 ' Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and Durham ' 

 (p. 54, pi. 5), saying that it was knocked down with 

 a clod of earth, April 24th, 1855, on the sea-banks near 

 Whitburn, where it had been observed flying about for a few 

 days. This form of Redpoll probably visits the continent of 

 America at times in winter, but the only satisfactory addi- 

 tions that can here be made to what was previously known 

 of it, are that Mr. Hancock possesses a specimen from Ice- 

 land, and that Mr. Eaton in 1873 found it breeding at Wide 

 Bay in Spitsbergen*, where he obtained a specimen which 

 is now in the Museum of the University of Cambridge. 



* Scoresby (Arot. Reg. i. pp. 131 and 537) had long before stated that a 

 Redpoll was found in Spitsbergen, but none of the naturalists visiting that 

 country since his time having met with it, they had commonly supposed him to 

 be mistaken. The more than vindication of his accuracy by Mr. Eaton makes 

 the latter's voyage memorable among ornithologists. 



