|SS 3 .J 
Brewster on HolbolVs Redpoll in New England. 
97 
A more conclusive instance came to my knowledge a few days 
later. On February 22 two young collectors happened to fall 
in with an exceptionally large flock of Red-polls at Nantasket 
Beach. A few shots into the. crowded ranks of the unsuspecting 
little ffirds brought down forty specimens, twenty being actually 
killed at one discharge. I had the good fortune to examine these 
specimens in the flesh and out of the total number thirty-four 
proved to be HE. holboelli. 
In the present connection it may be worth while to point out 
some of the characters by which linaria and holboelli can be 
distinguished, especially as this does not seem to have been very 
thoroughly done, at least in any of our recent works. It will 
be understood of course that the following remarks are based 
on Massachusetts specimens and hence relate to winter condi- 
tions only. 
Upon comparison of well-marked examples the difference 
between the two forms is at once apparent. Holboelli is consid- 
erably the larger bird* * * § and its billf is very much stouter^. The 
upper mandible is relatively, as well as actually heavier, and 
more decidedly decurved, its superior outline being often notice- 
ably convex, whereas in linaria it is nearly if not perfectly 
straight. The hind claw, also, is usually, but not always, 
longer. 
In plumage the two forms differ scarcely less strikingly. Hol- 
boelli is very much the darker and more heavily marked ; the 
dorsal feathers lack most of the whitish or ochraceous edging 
so conspicuous in winter examples of linaria , the general color- 
ing above being nearly uniform dark brown ; the streaks on the 
sides are blacker, coarser, and more numerous ; the forehead 
darker ; the rosy color beneath of the adult male is duller and 
more restricted, being usually confined to the breast and jugulum.§ 
* An adult female in the flesh is equal in size and weight to an average Purple 
Finch ( Carpodacus purpureus ) . 
t In some diagnoses the bill of holboelli is described as being wholly yellow, but 
authorities are not agreed on this point. In the present examples the color of the 
bill does not differ from that of linaria . 
X The bill is often apparently stouter but never, so far as my specimens show, abso- 
lutely so, the effect being produced partly by its greater depth and partly by the fact 
that the nasal plumules are longer and conceal more of the base. 
§ I have seen one specimen in which the rosy was similar in tint and extent to that 
of linaria. Possibly the fully mature birds do not often range as far south as Massa- 
chusetts. 
