Mr. W. E. Brooks on the Genus Acanthis. 363 
Dr. Stejneger adds a P.S. to the following effect, which I 
forgot to quote in its proper place:— 
“ P.S.—Since the above was written, Mr. W. Brewster has 
had the great kindness to send to me for inspection the 
specimens upon which his remarks on A. holboelli in his above- 
quoted paper were based. They confirm what I have already 
said, and there can, in my opinion, be no doubt that these 
Redpolls are birds bred in Greenland, or perhaps on the 
opposite shore of North America, wandering along the coast¬ 
line in winter as far south as New England and New York. 
They are, in all respects, true and typical A. 1. rostrata” 
It may be noticed that A. hornemanni has its diminutive 
counterpart in A. exilipes, and A. rostrata its diminutive in 
A. linaria. It would be folly to speculate whether the lesser 
were evolved from the greater, or the greater from the less; 
for we know nothing at all about such derivations, and ideal 
or imaginary natural history, mere speculation far removed 
from facts, like the greater part of Mr. SeebohnPs paper on 
the genus Scolopax, is useless, wearisome, and positively 
painful. Of what value is fancy in ornithology ? and 
unfortunately the tendency to indulge in flights of fancy is 
largely on the increase. 
It is strange how uncertain the Redpolls are in their 
autumnal migration. I have not seen one this last winter, 
1885-86. In 1884-85 they were plentiful, and during 1883- 
84 none at all. In 1882-83 they were again numerous, and 
during 1881-82 I never saw one. Of course I refer to the 
winters of each term, November to March. This last winter 
was severe, so also was that of 1883-84. 
In December, January, and February, 1882-83, examples 
of A. hornemanni were obtained at Fort Chimo, Northern 
Labrador; so these birds can endure a great amount of cold. 
In January 1883 we had it 10 and 11 degrees below zero here 
(Milton, Ontario), very much further south. North La¬ 
brador must have been very much colder. 
I have a few examples (four), to all appearances A. exilipes , 
except that the rump is a little streaked, and the lower tail- 
coverts slightly so. These must be either hybrids between 
2 c 2 
