336 TEN YEAES IN SWEDEN. 



or bushes give a change to the flat monotony of the 

 scene. 



Here the snow bunting runs along the ground,, or stretches 

 out its wings for flight. During the whole short summer 

 here are to be found numberless little open pools of water, 

 which hold the larvae of millions of midges and mosquitoes. 

 These creep up on to edges of the pools to undergo their 

 metamorphoses,, and furnish an abundant supply of food to the 

 snow bunting, and the few other birds that frequent these 

 desolate regions in the short but beautiful northern summer. 



Gen. Fringilla, 111. 



Bill small, conical ; tarsi short ; first three quill feathers 

 nearly equal. 



134. FEINGILLA LINAKIA, L. Gra Siska. The Mealy Bed- 

 pole. D. F. 



Length 5 in. ; tail deeply forked ; forehead and chin 

 black ; crown of the head glossy red, or reddish yellow ; 

 breast and rump, in the summer, in male rose red, in 

 female dirty yellow, with brown spots ; two white bands 

 across the wings; neck, back, and shoulders grey- 

 brown. The two-year old male has less red on the 

 breast and rump ; the one -year old male is very grey 

 on these parts, but still with a slight tinge of red, and 

 resembles the female, in which the crown of the head 

 alone is red. In winter the male is much tinged with 

 grey. 



Of this bird Professor Sundivall makes two forms the 

 short-beaked form and the long-beaked form ; in the former 

 the beak is only 2-f 1. long, in the latter 3^ 1. Nilsson says 

 that the long-beaked form seldom comes further south than 

 Stockholm. This is wrong, for in the winter it is much 

 commoner than the other with us in Wermland. That there 

 is a striking difference between the shape of the beaks in 

 these birds is certain, but I have carefully examined so many 

 specimens killed out of the same flocks, and seen the beaks 

 gradually decrease in size, that I have come to the conclusion 



