84 
OCCURRENCE OF LINOTA EXILIPES (Coues) 
ON THE EAST COAST OF YORKSHIRE. 
JOHN CORDEAUX, M.B.O.U., 
Great Cotes House, R.S.O., Lincoin, 
THE very considerable variations both as regards measurement 
and coloration amongst the Arctic Redpolls, obtained from time to 
time on the east coast of Yorkshire in the autumn and winter, are 
suggestive of these little immigrants being drawn together, under the — 
pressure of winter, from widely separated areas. On February 2 5th, 
1893 (as already recorded in ‘The Naturalist’), Mr. H. B. Hewetson 
and I, when on Kilnsea Common, saw a most beautifully-plumaged 
Redpoll, which appeared as large as a linnet, clinging to a thistle, 
from its size and light colour, and having had it for some time 
under observation at the distance of a few feet, I had at the time 
no doubt in referring it to Linota hornemanni of Greenland, Iceland, 
Spitsbergen, and Eastern North America, an example of which 
om the Northumberland coast was described and figured by 
John Hancock under the name of JZinaria canescens. In the 
present winter, Mr. Hewetson was fortunate in obtaining a very 
light-coloured Redpoll from near Easington, and this he obligingly 
sent to me for examination. The cinereous markings are in this 
example more pronounced than in the bird seen by us in 1893, and 
it is, although very light-coloured, distinctly darker on the upper 
surface. To judge also by the eye, without the opportunity of 
taking actual measurements, it is also smaller. The Easington bird 
has been seen both by Professor Newton and Mr. H. E., Dresser, 
both of whom agree that it is referable to Linofa exilifes, an Arctic 
and circumpolar species allied to Z. hormemanani, but differing in its 
somewhat smaller size. The difference between the two, Zznota 
hornemanni and L. exilipes, appears to me, after seeing a large series 
of skins, to be one of size only, and in fact they appear hardly 
separable. If they are ever to be regarded as one species, as 
Professor Newton has pointed out, it is the former name that must 
be used. 
This occurrence of Z. exi/ipes is new therefore as a record both 
for East Yorkshire and Great Britain. I have, however, evidence 
that others have been obtained in recent years in Holderness. 
8th February, 1894. 
Naturalist, 
