FRINGILLWM— TWITE. 



121 



MEALY REDPOLL, 



Mealy Redpoll: Linota Imaria. Locally, "Stone Redpoll.' 

 An irregular and uncommon winter visitor. 



Henry Doubleday mentions (lo) a 

 pair sent to him from Colchester in 

 1836. He adds : 



" I have never yet met with one in 

 this vicinity [Epping], but about 

 three weeks since I had the pleasure 

 of seeing it wild, feeding on the 

 alder, in company with a number of 

 Siskins, near Colchester. I shot 

 one and immediately after a speci- 

 men with a fine rose-coloured 

 breast alighted on the alder close to 

 me, but flew ere I could load my 

 gun. I cannot find that any of 

 the bird-catchers have ever taken 

 the Stone Redpoll here." 



Doubleday also supplied Yarrell with some notes of his observations upon this 

 bird at Colchester on this occasion (14. i. 510). 



Mr. Buxton says (47. 89) that in Epping Forest it " only appears at long in- 

 tervals, and, like the Crossbills, in considerable numbers, probably in quest of food." 

 Mr. English adds that some years ago many were trapped by Henry Doubleday 

 and himself. Yarrell says (37. ii. 136) that, although seldom noticed in spring, 

 the Museum at Saffron Walden contained one killed near there in May, 1836, and 

 it is marked as having occurred near the town in the catalogue issued in 1845, 

 The Rev. M. C. H. Bird saw some in company with Siskins on Canvey Island 

 on December 8th, 1881. A specimen from Colchester in the spring of 1862 is 

 preserved in the Bree Collection. Round Danbury, Mr. Smoothj' has seen a few 

 among the crowds of Lesser Redpolls in winter. 



TTvite : Linota flavirostris. 



A more or less common resident from the midland counties north- 

 ward, but known in Essex only as a common winter visitor to the 

 sea-coast. It often abounds 

 on the saltings round Maldon 

 and elsewhere, going in small 

 flocks. 



Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear 

 write (9. 27) : 



" We have found them plentiful 

 in the month of October on Pewit 

 Island, and on the main-land of 

 Essex near it, in flocks of ten and 

 twenty together, and towards even- 

 ing we noticed flocks of about a 

 hundred, so that it seems not im- 

 probable that the flocks may collect 

 together to pass the night. No 



TWITE, Yz. 



other birds were feeding on the seeds of the marsh samphire and sea starwort. 

 * * * At half-past five o'clock on the morning of March 20th, 1820, a very ex- 

 traordinary migration of small birds was witnessed at Little Oakley in Essex. 

 The attention of the observer was arrested by an uncommon chattering of birds, 



