is ever plentiful in the north of Europe, and that it breeds over the greater part of Norway and a g In
the former country I observed it breeding on the Dovrefjeld, while in Lapland the late Mr. Wolley obtained
numerous richly coloured specimens, nests, and eggs, and, in some notes communicated to Mr. Hewitson,

says, ‘‘ The Mealy Redpole is seen in most seasons throughout the winter in vale ee the greater
number go southwards. Even in the breeding-time it seems to be a prceanions binds or a considerable
number of nests are to be found in a small space of the birch-forest ; and the region of Pie trees seems to
In 1854, I principally met with it in a small district, at a great elevation, towards the
Norwegian frontier. In 1855, when all soft-billed birds were so scarce after the preceding scree winter in
the south, the Mealy Redpoles were abundant everywhere, from the very strands of the Arctic Ocean, over

the mountains, where the nests were often close to the ground, as indeed they sometimes are in other

be its proper habitat.

situations, to the extensive forests of Munioniska.”

“The nest of the Mealy Redpole,” says Mr. Wheelwright in his ‘Spring and Summer in Lapland,’ “ is one
of the most beautiful I ever saw—perfectly cup-shaped, built of fine sticks, then a layer of fine grass, and
next an interior lining of the white down of the willow and white feathers of the Willow-Grouse.”

The eggs are said to be five or six in number, and, as figured by Mr. Heyitsou, are of a very pale blue
or bluish white, in some cases sparingly, and in others more profusely, speckled with pale rufous round the
thicker end.

Every observer of nature must have noticed that a red colouring largely pervades the nuptial and summer
dress of the Lovide. These bright colourings offer a striking contrast to the green foliage of the trees
among which they respectively breed, give light as it were to the sprays of the pine, and life to the snow-
covered branches of the spruce, their rosy breasts showing like living flowers among the birches and
stunted willows during the inclement season of early spring.

Mr. Newton informs me that he considers only three species of this form to have been clearly defined. In
this case the present bird must be subject to a greater variation in the size and form of its bill than any
other small bird that has come under my notice. In some specimens the bill is as large, long, and pointed
as that of a Goldfinch ; in others it is short and triangular (the normal form of the genus) ; while I possess
two examples, killed by myself on the Dovrefjeld, in which the bills differ from both slightly in form and
altogether in colour, being nearly black. Mr. Stevenson and many other observers have noticed these
differences ; but no one, I believe, except Brehm, has been bold enough to characterize them as distinct
species. They are indeed sadly puzzling to the ornithologist ; but it is possible, if not probale, that they
are dependent mainly on season. In the Brambling and Chaffinch the bill entirely changes its colour with
the time of year; and it may well be, though from a different cause, that the same is the case with its form.
Excluding from consideration birds that have been kept in cages, it will be found on examination that
Redpoles having the longest bills are those which have been obtained towards the end of summer. This
fact leads one to suspect that the peculiarity may be owing to the birds’ having at that season lived almost
exclusively on soft food (insects, buds, and the like), which would occasion no wearing away of the mandibles
as is the case at other times of the year, when hard seeds form their principal if not their only diet. Again,

in specimens obtained in winter, especially in high northern latitudes, the bill is so thickly clothed with |

feathers at its base that its apparent length is very greatly diminished, though if these be taken into account
it will be found not so very much differing, either in size or shape, from what it is easily seen to be in
summer. Future observations, no doubt, will set this point at rest.

The Mealy Redpole is subject to precisely the same changes of plumage as the Lesser Redpole: in the
summer the rosy tints of its breast are most beautiful, and the further you proceed north the finer and
brighter do they appear to be. In winter the male has the lores and throat brownish black ; feathers of the
head dusky, with a patch of deep red on the crown ; back of the neck and upper part of the back pale
yellowish brown, lower part of the back and rump greyish white; wings and tail dark brown, margined with
brownish white ; Wing-coverts the same, the whitish tips forming two bands across the wing when closed ;

breast and fore part of the flanks suffused with rose-red ; all the feathers of the upper surface and flanks with
a small streak of brown down the centre; abdomen white ; bill dull yellowish ;

The female at this season is very like the male, but is paler
rose-red on the breast and flanks.

In summer the upper surface of the males becomes of a more uniform and darker brown, from the absence

of much of the yellow bordering of the feathers ; the head becomes of a deep blood-red; the breast, throat,
and upper part of the flanks of a very rich rose-red, a tr

tail-coverts ; and the flanks are conspicuously striated w

irides, legs, and feet brown.
in her general hue, and has no trace of the

ace of which colour appears on the rump and upper
ith blackish brown,

Specimens from Nortl rice ac ; me . . .
I : America agree exactly with our bird; but in that country there is certainly another
species also, the true Hy iothus canescens, a much larger species.

The Plate represents tw ales ¢ ‘ Cae .
: | s two adult males and a female, life-size, and a branch of the alder (Alnus glutinosa).