148 FRINGILLID^. 



and Kerry for instance, it seems to have been only observed 

 as a winter-visitor. Yet it is presumed to have bred on the 

 Blackwater in Waterford, and is known to have done so in 

 Tipperary, about Clonmel. 



According to the best authorities the Lesser Eedpoll is in 

 some years abundant at the time of migration in Holland 

 and Belgium, and it has long been known in France as a 

 regular winter- visitant. It is of nearly annual occurrence, 

 says M. Lacroix, on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees, 

 and in some years reaches Southern Spain as well as Pro- 

 vence. Its breeding in France is denied, but is asserted by 

 Bailly with regard to the Alps of Savoy. Dr. Salvadori, 

 however, considers its appearance in Italy to be very doubt- 

 ful. That it should occur at least accidentally in Western 

 Germany seems highly probable, but the Editor cannot find 

 positive proof of the fact, and in the recorded cases of its occur- 

 rence in that country we may suspect that young examples of 

 the Mealy Redpoll have been mistaken for it. It is certainly 

 unknown throughout Scandinavia. Its geographical range 

 thus seems to be extremely limited *, and, with the asserted 

 exception above mentioned, its area of distribution during the 

 breeding-season appears to be confined to the British Islands. 

 If this be so some explanation is afibrded of the difficulty 

 which many foreign naturalists have found in admitting the 

 distinctness of the present form of Redpoll, since few of them 

 probably have had the opportunity of examining a series of 

 specimens of the true Linota rufescens. 



Regard being had to the necessary effect of its restricted 

 range, as just indicated, the habits of the Lesser Redpoll so 

 closely resemble those of the Mealy Redpoll that the account 

 of them already given would almost as well apply to the 

 present bird. Yet in a few points some slight differences 

 may be noticed. The Lesser Redpoll, though very partial 



* Its supposed occiu-rence in Northern Russia Las been shewn in a pi'eviou.s 

 note (p. 140) to be erroneous. Drake (Ibis, 1867, p. 427) included this bird 

 among those he saw in Morocco, and MM. Jaubert and Barthelemy-Lapommeraye 

 say that it sometimes visits Algeria in winter, but some further evidence is needed 

 before the belief that it goes so far to the southward can be accepted. 



