FRINGILLIDAE—TWITE. 121
Mealy Redpoll: Linota linaria. Locally, " Stone Redpoll.'
An irregular and uncommon winter visitor.
Henry Doubleday mentions (10) a
pair sent to him from Colchester in
1836. He adds :
" I have never yet met with one in
this vicinity [Epping], but about
three weeks since 1 had the pleasure
of seeing it wild, feeding on the
alder, in company with a number of
Siskins, near Colchester. I shot
one and immediately after a speci-
men with a fine rose-coloured
breast alighted on the alder close to
me, but flew ere I could load my
gun. I cannot find that any of
the bird-catchers have ever taken
the Stone Redpoll here."
Doubleday also supplied Yarrell with some notes of his observations upon this
bird at Colchester on this occasion (14. i. 510).
Mr. Buxton says (47. 89) that in Epping Forest it " only appears at long in-
tervals, and, like the Crossbills, in considerable numbers, probably in quest of food."
Mr. English adds that some years ago many were trapped by Henry Doubleday
and himself. Yarrell says (37. ii. 136) that, although seldom noticed in spring,
the Museum at Saffron Walden contained one killed near there in May, 1836, and
it is marked as having occurred near the town in the catalogue issued in 1845.
The Rev. M. C. H. Bird saw some in company with Siskins on Canvey Island
on December 8th, 1881. A specimen from Colchester in the spring of 1862 is
preserved in the Bree Collection. Round Danbury, Mr. Smoothy has seen a few
among the crowds of Lesser Redpolls in winter.
Twite : Linota flavirostris.
A more or less common resident from the midland counties north-
ward, but known in Essex only as a common winter visitor to the
sea-coast. It often abounds
on the saltings round Maldon
and elsewhere, going in small
flocks.
Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear
write (9. 27) :
" We have found them plentiful
in the month of October on Pewit
Island, and on the main-land of
Essex near it, in flocks of ten and
twenty together, and towards even-
ing we noticed flocks of about a
hundred, so that it seems not im-
probable that the flocks may collect
together to pass the night. No
other birds were feeding on the seeds of the marsh samphire and sea Starwort.
* * * At half-past five o'clock on the morning of March 20th, 1820, a very ex-
traordinary migration of small birds was witnessed at Little Oakley in Essex.
The attention of the observer was arrested by an uncommon chattering of birds,