278 THE MEALY REDPOLL IN OXON. 



bourhood of Durham in trees and old walls ; in old walls near 

 Whitburn ; in trees and walls near Wolsingham ; in similar situations 

 in the Browney valley and also in the lower part of the Derwent 

 Valley. 



Numbers of this bird are only spring and autumn visitants to this 

 county, arriving here about the latter part of March and beginning 

 of April and leaving again in September and October, or even later, 

 flocking with Linnets, Greenfinches, Stone Chats, &c. Others stay 

 the winter when they are gregarious, and may often be seen around 

 corn-stacks and about farmyards feeding with their more intrusive 

 relatives, the House Sparrow, Linnets, Blue Titmice, Robins, &c. 



NO TE~ ORNITHOL OGY. 



' The Mealy Redpoll in Oxon ?— I confess that on reading Mr. Eagle Clarke s 

 little notice of the ' Birds of Oxon,' I am immensely amused at his discovering that 

 Mr. Aplin, and those of us who worked yi?;- Jn/ii for years in that county, mistook 

 Mealy Redpolls for large examples oi Linota rufesceiis. As I, if any one, am the 

 chief culprit, Mr. Clarke will no doubt allow me to answer for myself. I have no 

 hesitation in saying that the birds were not L. linaria, but simply large examples 

 of the Lesser Redpoll, and lighter coloured than most of the tawny little Redpolls 

 caught in England. I may say that I have examined /natty hundreds ; at one 

 time I used to regularly visit the Ijird shops in Club Row, Shoreditch, and these 

 birds were caught sometimes in such numbers that I have known them retailed at 

 IS. 6d. a dozen, and even sold as a ' penny bird ' to the street urchins. I have also 

 seen ' droves ' of Mealy Redpolls in Norway, most captivating and confiding little 

 birds ; the newly-fledged ' branchers ' permitting a very close approach. At night 

 they used to roost in the willow-scrub. I have also kept many Lesser and Mealy 

 Redpolls in confinement, and have paid considerable attention to the nesting of the 

 Lesser Redpoll in the North of England. Both the large form and the small form 

 of the Lesser Redpoll breed with us in Cumberland, and their call-notes and habits 

 are precisely similar, but the typical British Redpoll is, of course, the little tawny 

 fellow, the male of which sometimes breeds before he has acquired the red breast ; 

 the other form being the scarcer bird. I hope that after this Mr. Clarke will give 

 us credit for knowing the two species apart, because to one who has handled as 

 many Redpolls as I have, his suggestion is too diverting. There are two forms of 

 Goldfinches, a light form and a small dark one, and the difference between 

 the two forms of Redpolls is to my eye just as well marked. I do not, myself, 

 believe in hair-splitting ; I prefer much to ' lump ' local races together ; but 

 Z. linaria is a well-defined species, with a different call-note from L. rtifescens. — 

 H. A. Macpherson, Carlisle, May ist, 1890. 



[The facts which have called for the above note are simple. I ventured to 

 consider certain Redpolls described as 'the large light-coloured race of Redpolls,' 

 and which occurred in Oxfordshire 'in the winters of 1879-80 and 1880-1,' to be 

 Z. linaria. Mr. Macpherson tells us they were simply a form of Z. riifoscens. 

 The exposition of his views suggest the question of the expediency of recognising 

 a form of L. rufescens to be familiarly alluded to as ' the large light-coloured race. ' 

 The historians of our British birds would appear to think otherwise, since they do not 

 mention it. If we admit that there is a 'large light-coloured race' of Z. rufescens, 

 worthy the name, we would ask where does Z. rufescens end and Z. linaria begin ? 

 For the distinction between the two birds is admittedly one of size and colour. 

 Mr. Sharpe and Mr. Seebohm, among British ornithologists, regard Z. rufescens 

 to be a sub-species only of Z. linaria. Can another split be recognised without 

 trespass upon the border-lands of individualism? Mr. Macpherson really must 

 pardon us if, after his expressed opinions on this subject, he is regarded as anything 



but a 'lumper' on the subject of Redpolls. — W.E.C.] 



Naturalist 



