MEALY REDPOLL LINNET. 121 



I and my party had procured a good number of Common Redpolls in the 

 rugged country of Labrador, but not a single bird of this species; which yet 

 removes during winter to our middle districts. A specimen in my posses- 

 sion was procured near Moorestown, in the State of New Jersey, by my 

 valued friend Edward Harris, Esq., and I have seen several others that 

 were obtained near Baltimore in Maryland. 



That the Mealy Redpoll becomes a richly coloured bird at the approach 

 of the breeding season I feel quite confident, and I will now venture to give 

 you some idea of its appearance at that happy period of its life. Then, I 

 would say, the cheeks and the whole under part of the body, excepting a 

 large black patch on the throat, are of a rich carmine, as is the rump. The 

 spots seen on the sides of the breast, and along the lower parts of the body, 

 almost to the femorals, disappear, and the upper parts, or the shoulders and 

 back, become almost of a uniform rich brown, as those parts are in the 

 Common Linnet of Europe. 



The present species is rather larger than the Common Redpoll. The 

 colour of its bill even during winter differs in being of a rich yellow, and 

 its legs, feet, and claws at that season are pure black, instead of reddish- 

 brown. 



On two occasions I have seen the Mealy Redpoll associated with the 

 American Siskin, in the beginning of October, in the province of New 

 Brunswick. They were then feeding on the seeds of neglected sun-flowers. 



Accidental in New Jersey and New York. More common from Maine 

 northward. Labrador and Fur Countries. Columbia river. 



Grosbec boreal, Fringilla borealis, Temm. Man. d'Orn., vol. iii. p. 264. 

 Mealy Redpoll, Fringilla borealis, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v. p. 87. 



Adult Male. 



Bill short, strong, conical, much compressed toward the end, extremely 

 acute; upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, the ridge narrow, the 

 sides convex, the edges sharp and overlapping, without notch, the tip acumi- 

 nate; lower mandible with the angle short and semicircular, the dorsal line 

 straight, the ridge narrow, the sides convex, the edges sharp and inflected, 

 the tip very acute. Nostrils basal, roundish, covered by stiffish reversed 

 feathers. 



Head of moderate size, roundish; neck short; body moderate. Feet of 

 moderate length, rather slender; tarsus short, compressed, anteriorly covered 

 with a few scutella, of which the upper are blended, posteriorly with two 

 longitudinal plates meeting at a very acute angle; toes rather stout, the first 



