BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 55 



92. LINOTA CANNABINA (Linnseus) . Common 

 Linnet. 



Provincial. Grey Linnet, Brown Linnet. 

 Common and universally distributed, their numbers 

 augmented in the autumn by large migratory flocks 

 from the north. These resort for a time, in company 

 with the Mountain-Linnet, to the sand hills along the 

 coast, where they feed on the seeds of the sea-purslane 

 and other shore-loving plants. When the supply be- 

 comes exhausted, they retire to the stubbles in the salt 

 marshes,, and daily render great services by picking up 

 and consuming countless minute seeds of charlock, 

 knot-grass, and many other weeds injurious to the 

 labours of the husbandman. 



93. LINOTA CANESCENS (Gould). Mealy Redpole. 



I have not met with this northern Redpole in 

 Lincolnshire. Mr. Boulton informs me he has had 

 one specimen obtained from a flock in the early winter 

 in Holderness some years ago, but has not met with 

 it since. 



The Mealy Redpole in certain years appears to be 

 by no means uncommon in the neighbouring county 

 of Norfolk, and was extremely plentiful there from 

 October to Christmas in 1861 *. 



Breeds in the extreme north of Europe. 



* Mr. Stevenson's ' Birds of Norfolk/ vol.i. page 228. 



