MEALY REDPOLE. 509 



Lucian Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano, of Mr, Gould, 

 and Mr. Eyton. By the synonyme quoted in his work, 

 Mr. Macgillivray appears to consider our Mealy Red- 

 pole as identical with the Fringilla Borealis of the third 

 part of M. Temminck's Manual, and the description there 

 given of the plumage in its various states very closely re- 

 sembles that of our bird. The Lesser Redpole of this coun- 

 try has been considered identical with the Redpole of North 

 America ; but, according to the testimony of Mr. Gould, 

 the North American bird appears to be the L. canescens, or 

 Mealy Redpole rather than the Lesser Redpole of authors ; 

 and the measurements given in the different works on the 

 Birds of North America, approach nearer to those of our 

 Mealy Redpole than to the lesser bird. Mr. Gould, in the 

 article on the Mealy Redpole in the eleventh part of his 

 Birds of Europe, says, " Whether this species is truly a 

 native of Europe, or whether those which occur in our island 

 are arrivals from the northern portions of the American con- 

 tinent, is a matter of doubt ; true it is that the specimens 

 brought home by Dr. Richardson, which furnished the de- 

 scriptions given in the Faiina-Boreali Americana, are strict- 

 ly identical with the bird before us." The Prince of Mu- 

 signano includes two species of Redpole in his Catalogue of 

 the Birds of North America, Borealis and Linaria. 



To return, however, to our English species : the Mealy 

 Redpole, or Stone Redpole, as it is also called, is well 

 known to the London dealers in birds, and considered by 

 them as distinct from the Lesser Redpole ; but the occur- 

 rence of the Mealy Redpole in the vicinity of London is rare 

 even to those men who, obtaining their livelihood by bird- 

 catching, trap hundreds of dozens of birds in the course of 

 the year. The Lesser Redpole, on the contrary, is very 

 common. A respectable dealer in birds tells me that about 

 twenty-three years ago, the Mealy Redpoles were very 



