ROSE LINNET. 
485 
From the continual alarm of these birds, occasioned by the presence of 
the Doctor and his companions on these little islands, neither the egg’s 
nor the young of the Roseate Tern could be clearly ascertained ; but 
several eggs were collected, that differed in size, colour, and shape. 
It is more than probable, that this bird will be found hereafter to 
congregate in other places, not remote from the longitudinal line in 
which it was first discovered, although it has hitherto passed unnoticed 
amongst a host of the common tern ; actual inspection enables us 
to bear record of it as a distinct species, upon ocular evidence, if such 
could be wanting, in addition to the excellent history given by Doctor 
M^Dougall. 
ROSE LINNET. — * Fleming has given this appellation to the 
Redpole, most inappropriately, as it appears to me, particularly when 
there is an undecided controversy about these linnets ; Temminck 
holding with Montagu, that there are but two species, the linnet 
and the redpole, in which he is followed by Selby and Fleming, and 
opposed by the high authority of Vieillot.^ I am quite certain that 
Fleming is wrong in giving Rose Lintie as the Scotch for redpole, and 
I am equally certain that the call and song of the true Rose Lintie are 
quite different from those of the linnet. My own observations agree 
exactly with the following remarks of Syme, so far as the grey and 
Rose Linnets are concerned, though I am doubtful about his greater 
redpole. 
“ We are rather inclined to think,” he says, that the linnet, grey 
linnet, or brown linnet, the Red-breasted or Rose Linnet, and the 
greater redpole, are three distinct birds, but as closely allied to each 
other as the three species of wagtails are to one another. We shall 
state our reasons for thinking so. The grey linnet is rather less, 
and more slender than the redpole. The white on the quills and outer 
feathers of the tail of the linnet, is broader and brighter than that of the 
redpole. The bill of the redpole is rather larger, and broader at the 
base, than that of the linnet. The marks on the breast of the redpole, 
in all its changes of plumage, run in decided streaks, pointing down- 
wards, while those on the breast of the linnet are much fainter, and 
more inclining to an irregular mottled appearance. The eggs of the 
redpole are of a bluish-white colour, marked with specks and lines of 
dingy purple, — those of the linnet are reddish-white, freckled with 
small spots of brownish-orange ; but, above all, the songs of the two 
birds are different : both are good, but we think that of the linnet the 
‘ Mem. della R. Academia de Torino, 1816, pp. 193, &c. 
F F 2 
