MEALY REDPOLE. 557 



Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano, of Mr. Gould, and Mr. 

 Eyton. By the synonyme quoted in his work, Mr. Mac- 

 gill ivray appears to consider our Mealy Redpole as identical 

 with the Fringilla Borealis of the third part of M. Tem- 

 minck'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 

 considered 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 measurement 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 the eleventh part of 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 Dr. Richardson, which furnished the de- 

 scriptions given in the Fauna- B or eali Americana, are strict- 

 ly identical with the bird before us." The Prince of Mu- 

 signano 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 that about 



