■2 2 Stejneger, Further Notes on the Genus Acanthis. [January 



evident that he had not the opportunity of comparing English and 



continental specimens. 



The Southern Redpoll seems to be a comparatively rare bird, 

 though it must be remarked that the mountain regions of Southern 

 Europe are very imperfectly worked up ornithologically. It 

 breeds, however, in the Alps and Apennines (cf. Auk, 1SS4, p. 

 151). and Mr. Giglioli has recently added Friuli as a locality 

 where it has been found nesting (Avifauna Italiana, 1SS6, p. 37). 

 According to Dresser (Birds of Europe, IV. p. 49), Bailly asserts 

 that it breeds in the Alps of Savoy, and he also gives Adrien 

 Lacroix as the authority for the statement that it is met with 

 every season on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees. 



When writing my article on Aca?ithis I had no access to the 

 plates of Dresser's 'Birds of Europe,' nor had I any specimens of 

 true A. exilipes from the Western Palsearctic Region, i. e. from 

 Finnarken and Northern Russia. In the text Dresser stated that 

 he had A. exilipeshom Tromsoe, in Norway. As it seemed im- 

 possible to me that Scandinavian ornithologists who distin- 

 guished between A. linaria proper and A. I. holboellii should 

 have overlooked or ignored so well pronounced a form as exilipes, 

 and as I possessed a specimen of a Redpoll from the very same 

 locality, which certainly was not an exilipes, but apparently a 

 pale variety of A. linaria. I was inclined to think that Dresser 

 did not know the true exilipes. and that his birds and mine 

 formed a special race of linaria, which should be called palles- 

 cens. In all this I was mistaken, however. Mr. Seebohm, with 

 a most praisworthy generositv, has presented the National Muse- 

 um with a complete copy ot' Dresser's grand work, and an in- 

 spection of pi. 1S9. fig. 1, at once showed me that Dresser was 

 quite correct. Specimens afterwards received from Messrs. 

 Seebohm and Brooks, collected at the Petshora and in Siberia, 

 confirm this beyond a doubt, and the habitat of A. exilipes is 

 therefore proven to be as completely circumpolar as that of A. 

 linaria typica, though more northerly. If the Tromsoe birds 

 (which, remarkably enough, is not included in Dresser's list of 

 specimens examined) are identical with the one figured from 

 Petshora, then A. exilipes is certainly to be included in the Nor- 

 wegian Avifauna, and the 'A. canescens' which Sommerfeldt 

 reported as observed in the autumn at Tanen (cf. Collett, Rem. 

 Orn. North. Norw., Forh, Vid. Selsk. Christiania, 1S72, p. 209) 

 is, in all probability. A. exilipes. Whether it breeds in Scandi- 



