AAGIOTHUS LINARIA.
Mealy Redpole.

Fringilla linaria, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 87.
Linaria borealis, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’ Hist. Nat., tom. xxxi. p. 341.
—— Ablbelh, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., p- 280?
Passer linaria, Pall. Zoogr. Ross.-Asiat., tom. ii. p- 25?
Linaria minor, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Spec. of Mamm. and Birds in Brit. Mus.
Fringilla linaria borealis, Jenyns, Man. Brit. Vert. Anim., p. 139.
borealis, Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nd edit. tom. iii. p- 264,
LIinaria canescens, Gould, Birds of Eur., vol. iii. pl. 193.
Linota canescens, Yarr. Hist. of Brit. Birds, edit. of 1838, vol. i. p. 508.
Fringilla (Acanthis) borealis, Keys. & Blas. Wirb. Eur., De welts
canescens (partim), Schleg. Rev. Crit. des Ois. d’Eur., Dp. bari.
Acanthis linaria, Bonap. et Schleg. Monog. des Loxiens, pl. 52.
— holboelh, Bonap. et Schleg. ib., pl. 53?
Aigiothus linarius, Cab. Mus. Hein., Theil i. p. 161.
Fringilla (Acanthis) linaria, Middend. Sib. Reise, tom. ii. pl. 11, p- 150.
Asgiothus linaria, Baird, Pacific Railr. Rep., Birds, p. 428.

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For many years after ornithology had become a science, two British birds of this form were confounded
under one name ; and I regret to say that a mass of confusion exists with regard to their true synonymy,
which I fear it will scarcely be possible to unravel ; indeed I know not how it can be satisfactorily effected

 

without an examination of the type specimens to which the various appellations were applied—a measure
now hardly possible. We may, however, arrive at one certain conclusion—namely, that the species to which
Linneeus applied the name Fring:la lnaria was one commonly found in Sweden ; and as the only Redpole
which fulfils this condition is the present, we may safely infer that it is the bird he described by that
appellation.

Although the Mealy Redpole is occasionally very numerous in our islands, it must be regarded as but an

 

accidental winter visitor. The bird-catchers, who are generally excellent observers after their own way, will
tell you that this season the Mealy or Stone Redpole is more numerous than the common or lesser species,
and that their takes of this bird have consequently been great—a fact which may be confirmed or refuted
by a visit to that great emporium of living birds, the Dials; or they may tell you that no Stone Redpoles
have been seen either in this or the last year, or that for several seasons they have not seen a bird.

“The Mealy Redpole,” says Mr. Stevenson in his ‘Birds of Norfolk,’ ‘‘ can scarcely be called an annual
winter visitant, although flocks of more or less extent may be met with in several consecutive seasons ; but
now and then, from some cause not easily explainable, their total absence is remarked upon by our bird-
catchers, and, as I have frequently experienced when most wanting a specimen to supply some loss in my
aviary, not a bird has been netted the whole winter through. Their numbers and appearance also cannot
always be accounted for by the severity of the weather, in this country at least, either at the time of, or
subsequent to, their arrival on our coasts. In 1847 and 1855, the latter a very sharp winter, they were
extremely plentiful ; and in 1861, from the middle of October to the close of the year, probably the largest
flocks ever noticed in this district, were distributed throughout the country. Hundreds of them were netted

by the bird-catchers, being far more plentiful than the lesser species, and many still retained the rich flame-

coloured tints of the breeding-season.
61, hardly a bird was taken, though remarkable for its intense frosts ;

Yet the weather throughout this period was not unusually severe ;

and in the previous winter of 1860--
and again in 1863 and 1864 they were equally scarce, with an almost equal degree of cold.
st of this species has ever been found in Norfolk; but Mr. Alfred Newton

«Tam not aware that the ne .
in full breeding-plumage, at Riddlesworth, in July 1848,

has recorded the occurrence of a male specimen, ‘
which he had ‘no doubt had bred there;’ I was also assured by one of our Norwich bird-catchers, that
in the spring of 1862, after the large influx of the ; |

Both the Mealy and Lesser Redpoles, from their tameness and engaging
aviary, but from their happy contented natures are
drop off the perch in a fit of apoplexy. Mr. Charles

previous autumn, he observed a flock of twenty or thirty

as late as the middle of April.
actions, are most desirable additions to the cage or
liable to grow too fat, and, like Ortolans, when overfed,
Barnard, of this city, had a brood of young Mealy Redpole
—a very uncommon circumstance with this species.”
The irregularity in the visits of this bird cannot, of c

s hatched off in his aviary at Stoke, in July 1860

ourse, be accounted for ; all we know is that the bird