584 FRINGILLIM. 



Bonaparte, of Mr. Gould, and Mr. Eyton. By the 

 synonyme quoted in his work, Mr. Macgillivray appears 

 to consider our Mealy Redpole as identical with the 

 Fringilla Borealis of the third part of M. Temminck's 

 Manual, and the description there given of the plumage 

 in its various states very closely resembles that of our 

 bird. The Lesser Redpole of this country has been con- 

 sidered identical with the Redpole of North America; 

 but, according to the testimony of Mr. Gould, the North 

 American bird appears to be the L. canescens, or Mealy 

 Redpole, rather than the Lesser Redpole of authors ; and 

 the measurements given in the different works on the 

 Birds of North America, approach nearer to those of 

 our Mealy Redpole, than to the lesser bird. Mr. Gould, 

 in the article on the Mealy Redpole in his Birds of 

 Europe, says, " Whether this species is truly a native 

 of Europe, or whether those which occur in our island are 

 arrivals from the northern portions of the American conti- 

 nent, is a matter of doubt ; true it is that the specimens 

 brought home by Sir John Richardson, which furnished 

 the descriptions given in the Fauna-Boreali Americana, are 

 strictly identical with the bird before us." The Prince 

 Charles Bonaparte includes two species of Redpole in his 

 Catalogue of the Birds of North America, Borealis and 

 Linaria. 



To return, however, to our English species : the Mealy 

 Redpole, or Stone Redpole, as it is also called, is well 

 known to the London dealers in birds, and considered by 

 them as distinct from the Lesser Redpole ; but the occur- 

 rence of the Mealy Redpole in the vicinity of London is 

 rare even to those men who, obtaining their livelihood by 

 bird- catching, trap hundreds of dozens of birds in the 

 course of the year. The Lesser Redpole, on the contrary, 

 is very common. A respectable dealer in birds tells me 



