NOTES FROM NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE. 87 



male, obtained by Mr. Clarke and myself, was caught at early 

 morning of the 25th in the boat-house, and fourteen or fifteen 

 more were seen by Mr. Winson in his small garden contiguous. 

 We found them numerous in the locality of Spurn, Easington, 

 and Kilnsea from the 25th to the 27th, in small parties of twenty 

 or thirty, but generally three or four together, on plants of sea- 

 starwort, Aster tripolium. Some few of these were beautiful old 

 birds— very mealy, and, besides the blood-red patch on the fore- 

 head, had the breast and rump washed with delicate crimson- 

 rose. Out of examples preserved from various small flocks during 

 the last week in October only one was a female, the remainder 

 being males, both mature and immature. The stomachs of several 

 examined were filled with the husked seeds of Daucus carota and 

 Scirpus maritimus. There was a very marked difference in the 

 length and depth of the beak, and this in examples shot from the 

 same flock, indicating probably that the immigration was made 

 up of birds coming from widely separated districts in Scandinavia 

 At the same time, with the Eedpolls, many Siskins appeared in 

 flocks up to twenty, but more generally two or three together, 

 and frequenting much the same localities as the Eedpolls,— on 

 the sides of rough country lanes and the river embankments,— 

 clinging to the tops of thistles and various umbelliferous plants 

 on the seeds of which they were feeding. Mealy Eedpolls have 

 crossed Heligoland in large numbers during the autumn and up 

 to December 20th, the greater part passing during the last fort- 

 night of October. I have occasionally obtained Eedpolls in this 

 district which only differ from our ordinary English bird in their 

 slightly larger size and in having the feathers on the upper 

 surface fringed with grey. I have been considerably puzzled as 

 to whether they were L. linaria or rufescens, and it has only 

 recently occurred to me that they may be examples of the 

 European Eedpoll figured and described by Mr. Dresser, in his 

 'Birds of the Western Palaarctic Region,' as the Linota 'exilipes 

 of Coues-Coues's Redpoll. That flights of Redpolls which are not 

 referable to L. linaria cross the North Sea, I have satisfactory 

 evidence; and as our own Redpoll, L. rufescens, is confined to 

 the British Isles, it is more than probable that in the course of 

 migration L. exilipes occasionally visits us. 



The Brambling was first seen on October 3rd, a solitary 

 mature male; and on the 26th Mr. Clarke and I saw a flock 



