AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 195 



recorded to appear in Algeria and Morocco, but we 

 did not meet with it during our seven months' stay 

 in the former of those countries. 



86. MEALY REDPOLL. 



Linota canescens. 



The earliest record of the occurrence of this bird 

 in our county with which I am acquainted is to be 

 found in the fourth edition of Yarrell's ' British 

 Birds,' vol. ii. p. 136, where mention is made of " one 

 shot at Oundle by the late Mr. Pelerin sufficiently 

 advanced in its plumage to have acquired a consider- 

 able portion of red colour on the breast." The only 

 other instances of capture that I know of in North- 

 amptonshire are those of a female taken near Lilford 

 by a bird-catcher on October 21, 1885, and two 

 others taken by a member of the same craft near 

 Roade in December 1893, and most obligingly sent 

 to me by Mr. W. Tomalin of Northampton. This is 

 a species with which we have no personal acquaint- 

 ance, except as a cage-bird. Its habits appear to 

 resemble very closely those of the Lesser or Common 

 Redpoll, and it seems that a considerable amount of 

 confusion has arisen amongst ornithological writers 

 in the discrimination of the two species. The 

 present is a truly northern species, which occurs 

 irregularly and in varying numbers, chiefly in our 

 north-eastern and eastern counties, during the winter 

 months. I can meet with no authentic record of its 

 having been known to breed in our country. 



o2 



