BIRDS OF ICELAND 17 



' mealy ') : tail forked at the end, and the feathers 

 mealy-edged ; a rose-coloured cap on the crown (except 

 in very young birds), and in adult males, a lovely rosy 

 patch on either side of the breast, which, in very fine 

 examples, meet and form one ; a trace of rosy also on 

 the brown -streaked rump. Length 5 inches, wing 

 2f to 3 inches. 



Linota hornemanni, Hollboll. 

 Greenland Redpoll. 



Native name : none. 



Almost all British ornithological writers, except 

 Professor Newton in Baring-Gould, have gone com- 

 pletely astray about this bird, and have put it down as 

 the ordinary form of Eedpoll in Iceland — e.g., Dresser 

 {B. of EuroiK, iv. 42), Sharpe {B. M. Cat Birds, xii. 257), 

 Seebohm {B. B.), Saunders (3fan. of B. Birds, p. 181). 



I would call attention — yet once more — to my 

 remarks on the subject in the Ibis (1886, pp. 46-47). 

 L. linaria, Linn., is the common resident species of 

 Iceland, and the Greenland Eedpoll is a rare occasional 

 visitor, probably in the winter only. Mr. Hancock's 

 specimen, in fact, is the only genuine specimen of the 

 latter that has come under my notice ; and I have no 

 information as to when, where, and by whom it was 

 obtained. I have never succeeded in getting hold of 

 another. 



L. hornemanni is a large Arctic form of L. exilipes 

 of Coues. Both these have the white rump, in adult 



B 



