586 FRINGILLIDJJ. 



Mr. Pelerin, a Naturalist, living in Great Russell Street, 

 who has prepared for himself an extensive collection of the 

 crania and skeletons of animals, has most freely allowed me 

 the use of a cranium of each of our Redpoles, from which 

 the representations forming the subject of the vignette at 

 the end of the account of the next Redpole were carefully 

 drawn ; where, in addition to the side and back view of 

 each, the double parallel lines exhibit at once the com- 

 parative length and breadth of each head. 



In the Museum at Saffron Walden, there is a male of 

 the Mealy Redpole, which was killed in that neighbourhood 

 in May, 1836, and one shot by Mr. Pelerin at Oundle was 

 sufficiently advanced in its spring plumage to have acquired 

 a considerable portion of red colour on the breast ; the oc- 

 currence of this species, for such I consider it, is, however, 

 most frequent in winter ; many specimens have been ob- 

 tained in England, and some in Scotland. Its habits 

 throughout the year are probably very similar to those of 

 the Little Common Redpole next to be described, and 

 with which it has frequently been confounded. Its food 

 is the seeds of various forest trees. 



Thinking it not improbable that the Mealy Redpole 

 named canescens by Mr. Gould, as here quoted, may be 

 the same bird as that wlu'ch has been called Borealis 

 by Messrs. Temminck and P. Roux, that part of Mr. 

 Gould's Birds of Europe having been published, I be- 

 lieve, before the appearance of the third part of M. Tem- 

 minck's Manual, which contained the Borealis, I may 

 then add, under this supposed combination, that the geo- 

 graphical range of the species is very considerable. It in- 

 habits Scandinavia in summer ; and M. Temminck says he 

 has received specimens from Greenland, which did not 

 differ from those which are obtained in Europe. Like 

 most birds which visit the Arctic Regions, this species is 



