REDPOLES. 115 
FRINGILLA RUFESCENS, FRINGILLA LINARIA, ann FRIN- 
GILLA HORNEMANNI. 
LESSER REDPOLE, MEALY REDPOLE, and GREENLAND 
REDPOLE. 
(PLate 12.) 
The Redpole is subject to considerable variation throughout its wide 
range, which appears to be circumpolar. Examples from Western Europe 
are very small (varying in length of wing from 2°8 to 2°5 inches) and are 
very rufous; the prevailing colour of the margins of the feathers is pale 
buffish brown, and the stripes on the back, rump, flanks, and under tail- 
coverts are very distinct, and the breast of the adult male in breeding- 
plumage is rich carmine. Proceeding eastwards, through North Europe, 
North Asia, and North America, to Greenland, the tendency is to become 
larger and whiter, the extreme form in Greenland varying in length of wing 
from 3°3 to 3'1 inches, intermediate continental forms measuring from 3:0 to 
2°65 inches. In the Greenland bird the red on the breast is a delicate pink, 
the streaks on the rump, under tail-coverts, and flanks are nearly or quite 
obsolete, and the margins of the feathers are pure white. In Arctic Europe, 
Asia, and America every intermediate form between these two occurs ; and 
the variety of plumage thus occasioned is further complicated by the 
differences which are attributable to age, sex, and season. The 
West-European form is known as F. rufescens, and the Greenland form 
as F. hornemanni. The intermediate forms are known as F. linaria, 
which may be considered the typical form, of which the two extremes 
just mentioned are varieties. Some ornithologists, as Dresser and 
Newton, have attempted to separate these intermediate forms into two 
species ; others, as Ridgway, make three; whilst Coues and Homeyer 
make four. Each of the characters relied upon, whether it be the size of 
the bill, the colour of the breast, the absence or otherwise of streaks on the 
rump or under tail-coverts, or the extent of white on the plumage, would 
draw a line in a series in a different place; but as none of these lines 
would be geographical ones, it seems the wisest course to regard the 
intermediate race as very variable, the two extremes of variation alone 
having any geographical limits distinct from those of the typical form. The 
synonymy of the three forms is as follows :—- 
12 
wo 
