LESSER REDPOLL. 147 



between the two forms, which, as before stated, Vieillot first 

 clearly pointed out. It is to be hoped that British ornitho- 

 logists will no longer perpetuate the error of calling their 

 little favourite by a name which does not belong to it. 



In some English counties, particularly in the south, this 

 Redpoll is known only or chiefly as a winter-visitor, appear- 

 ing in flocks from Michaelmas till April, though in others 

 it breeds more or less regularly, and the nest has been found, 

 according to the late Mr. Bury, so far to the southward as 

 the Isle of Wight (Zool. p. 643). Towards the north, and 

 in Scotland especially, it is resident all the year, changing 

 its haunts however according to the season. Information 

 collected by Mr. More shews that of English counties it 

 occasionally breeds in Dorset, Hampshire, Oxford, Warwick 

 — where indeed Mr. Rake says (Zool. p. 9248) he has re- 

 peatedly taken its nests — and Salop — where Mr. Rocke 

 (Zool. p. 9781) believes it breeds regularly. To these Mid- 

 dlesex must be added on the authority of Mr. Harting, Kent 

 on that of Mr. Wharton (Zool. p. 8951), Surrey on that 

 of Newman (Zool. s.s. p. 3235), Cambridgeshire on that 

 of the Editor, and Worcestershire on that of Mr. J. A. Drake, 

 as cited by Mr. Morris. Mr. More further states that it 

 breeds annually in Gloucestershire, and it certainly does so 

 in Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derby- 

 shire, Cheshire and thence in every county lying to the 

 northward throughout the island. But the places it frequents 

 vary year by year, and, without our being able to account for 

 the fact, otherwise than on the general supposition that its 

 choice is influenced by the supply of food, it may be found 

 in a locality abundantly during one season and during the 

 next may be altogether wanting.* This remark however 

 chiefly holds good as regards the more southern parts of its 

 breeding-range, for in the more northern it exhibits a much 

 greater constancy. The same may be said of it in Ireland, 

 where it is found from north to south, though more plentiful 

 in the former, and in the latter, indeed — the counties Cork 



* Mr. F. Norgate has known of thirty or more nests in one year at one locality 

 in Norfolk, and in the next year scarcely any. 



