146 

 PASSERES. 



FRINGILLID/E. 



FR1XG1LLID.E. 



Linota rufescens (Vieillot*). 

 THE LESSER REDPOLL. 



Linota linaria \. 



The Lesser, and with us the more common, Redpoll is the 

 smallest of the British Finches, and is generally distinguished 

 from the preceding, not only by its size, but by its darker 

 and more rufous colouring — the replacement especially of the 

 whitish bars on the wings and of the mealy rump by the 

 latter being nearly always perceptible. As already premised, 

 many writers have taken this bird to be the Fringilla linaria of 

 Linnaeus and have used that epithet for it ; but, apart from 

 the consideration that his diagnosis absolutely excludes it 

 from being so regarded, there is the still stronger fact that 

 our Lesser Redpoll is unknown as a native of Sweden, and 

 therefore cannot be the bird which he describes as frequent- 

 ing the alder-groves of that country, though from the synonyms 

 he cites it is certain that he was not aware of the difference 



* Linaria rufescens, Vieillot, Memoric della Iteale Accademia dellc Scienze di 

 Torino, xxiii. Sc. Fis. p. 202 (1810-1818). 

 f Not Fringilla linaria, Linnaeus. 



