118 BRITISH BIRDS. 



one example has been obtained in France and another in Heligoland. In 

 Greenland it does not breed south of lat. 69, and Holboll found it 

 still common in lat. 73. 



The Redpole is a very interesting bird, especially to British ornitholo- 

 gists, who have opportunities of studying its habits during the breeding- 

 season denied to the field-naturalists of other countries. The variations in 

 its plumage at different ages have given rise to much controversy, and the 

 specific value of those due to geographical distribution to still more. In its 

 appearance it is an immature Linnet ; but in its habits it resembles more the 

 Siskin, a bird to whose society it is very partial in winter. It has the easy 

 buoyant flight of the latter bird, and there is a considerable similarity in 

 their songs. The British Redpole, or, as it is more generally called, the 

 Lesser Redpole, is a resident in our islands ; but after the breeding- season 

 is over these birds collect together in flocks, some of which seem to cross 

 the Channel for the winter. In either case they become gipsy migrants, 

 wandering here and there in search of food, very uncertain in their appear- 

 ance, common one year and rare the next. The Mealy Redpole scarcely 

 differs in its habits in this respect. In Finmark Collett says that though 

 the majority leave the country and wander south in winter, many 

 remain behind and feed upon the buds of the birch and alder. In Siberia, 

 however, the greater degree of cold probably compels them all to migrate. 

 In the valley of the Yenesay I found them in large flocks feeding on the 

 droppings of the horses on the snow at Yenesaisk in lat. 58, in the first 

 week of April ; but on the banks of the Koorayika, on the Arctic circle, I 

 saw nothing of them until the last week in May. So true are they to their 

 character of gipsy migrants that, according to Naumann, they are popu- 

 larly said to appear in Germany only once in seven years, arriving in 

 November and leaving again early in February. The Greenland or Arctic 

 Redpole is said to be a resident in that country ; but it appears also to be 

 a partial migrant ; for my friend Mr. Brooks assures me that it visits him 

 in Canada in winter, and Holboll describes its erratic wanderings, occa- 

 sionally appearing in great numbers near the Danish colonies. 



All the three varieties are principally ground-feeders in winter, and if 

 cautiously approached show very little fear. In the plantations and forests 

 they are much more difficult to observe, frequenting, like the Siskin and 

 the Serin, the tops of the trees. They pass rapidly over the trees, twittering 

 to each other as they fly along. It is a beautiful sight to see a large flock 

 of these little birds hopping about on the snow, picking up seeds from the 

 droppings of the horses, almost allowing the sledge to run over them before 

 they rise in a cloud and drop down again a hundred yards in advance. Nor 

 are their habits in this country any less interesting, as they alight in a flock 

 on a bed of dead thistles, and tear the remains of the flowers to pieces, like 

 Goldfinches, scattering the fragments in every direction, or twist and twine 



